The wait for perhaps the most anticipated game of all time, Grand Theft Auto 6, has spanned just over a decade. Its 2023 reveal convinced fans it would arrive sooner than expected — but multiple delays sapped plenty of the excitement.

After years of anticipation, GTA 6 is finally almost here, set to launch on November 19, 2026, on PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S, with no delays in sight. Hype is rising again, and it's an exciting time for the gaming industry.

Unfortunately, the build-up to launch has recently been marred not only by Sony pioneering the end of physical game discs, but also by Rockstar's anti-consumer shenanigans during GTA 6's dull marketing campaign — starting with the announcement of no physical copy.

In case you missed it, an extended look at GTA 6 will be available on August 27, 2026, on Netflix as a 6-hour exclusive, before Rockstar releases it on YouTube (and presumably other platforms). In other words, if you want to see what Rockstar has to offer firsthand and at the earliest available opportunity, you'll need to pay for a Netflix subscription.

Now, I'm not a spokesperson for gamers, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who quite literally sees this as a way for Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive (its parent company) to kickstart paid trailers — and the reactions online are a very worrying indication of a potential new precedent.

Stop defending anti-consumer practices

Here's the thing: you can still be excited about what is arguably the biggest game of all time, and still criticize a developer or publisher for justified reasons. I think it goes without saying that Rockstar's Netflix exclusivity deal is one of those reasons.

Locking a game trailer or gameplay showcase behind a paywall, even if it is just half an hour, is a massive red flag for any video game company, in my view. This is an unprecedented situation where fans are the ones paying to view marketing material, the same material that would previously be free to consume at the moment it was published.

My main concern comes from the reaction online; many gamers are effectively defending the exclusivity deal, with typical statements such as "you're only complaining because you're broke" or "it's not that big of a deal, it's just 6 hours".

Neither the price nor the amount of time of exclusivity matters, but rather, it's the principle and what foundation Rockstar and Netflix's move could mean for the future. It feels like Rockstar is testing the waters to see how consumers respond, and frankly, is taking advantage of gamers' fear of missing out and the desperation to see something new in GTA 6.

There's absolutely no benefit to the timed exclusive being locked behind a paywall for consumers, and it's actually quite surprising to see many come to Rockstar's defense.

I can't help but feel like if this were any other game studio (i.e., Ubisoft) pulling this exact move, the uproar and backlash would be as loud as ever. I'm well aware that GTA 6 is a significantly bigger game than any in this generation, but that doesn't suddenly mean we should gloss over anti-consumer practices.

This same attitude of "it's not that expensive" or "stop moaning" was widespread when the video game price standard was raised to $70 — and now, edging closer to $80 thanks to Mario Kart World and GTA 6.

Long before that, services like Sony's PlayStation Plus and Microsoft's Xbox Live quickly became normalized, stripping away free online multiplayer access. Gamers overlooked that, likely due to the benefits of 'free' monthly games, and now there's no going back.

That same concept is being applied here: if Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar, Netflix, and possibly other game publishers notice a massive influx of Netflix subscribers for GTA 6's extended look, there's a decent chance early access to game trailers will gradually become the new normal.

It will indirectly tell publishers that consumers are okay with paying for marketing material, out of pure excitement, which is to be expected for a game as big as GTA 6. Isn't that ugly?

This entire case explains why the gaming industry is in the state that it's in today. Gamers accept, or rather, minimize far too many anti-consumer practices by corporations before it's too late for them to backtrack, and we're seeing it unfold yet again.

I'm not saying gamers shouldn't buy GTA 6, even if you're against Rockstar not providing a game disc and protesting against Sony's decision. GTA 6 is the only game that I and many others won't skip out on, as the wait for the experience has been monumental, and that's okay.

However, that doesn't mean you can't still protest against the axing of true physical game copies and call out Netflix's timed exclusivity as a step too far, especially since the full experience of GTA 6 already costs $100 via the controversial ultimate edition.

Gamers need to realize that consumers hold the power overall, as banding together against unpopular practices can lead to change — but sadly, I think many fans will continue to look past Rockstar and Netflix's actions, simply because of their excitement, and that's a shame.

• Nikkei Inc's 2025 report is in, and it shows a growth in global camera shipments
• Canon extends its lead at the top, while Fujifilm leapfrogs Nikon to #3
• Fujifilm shipments have more than doubled since 2023

The global shipment numbers for digital cameras sold in 2025 are in from Nikkei Inc (see boxout) and they make for encouraging reading for the industry as a whole. But the news is particularly good if you're a fan of Canon or Fujifilm.

The biggest growth in shipments since the dawn of the smartphone was led by Canon once more, which tops the table with 4.5 million units (a huge increase of approximately one million more units year-on-year), while Sony maintained second place with 2.42 million shipments, following a much smaller increase.

It's a change in rankings, however, that catches the eye — Fujifilm leapfrogged Nikon to complete the top three; while Nikon's shipments saw a small dip, Fujifilm's grew significantly to surpass one million units, shipping 1.16 million versus 740,000 the year before (and 430,000 units the year before that).

Panasonic also enjoyed a major leap in shipments for 2025 to keep hold of position #5, while Ricoh Imaging stole sixth from OM Digital, thanks to the launch of its flagship premium compact, the GR IV.

You'll notice there's no mention of Leica or Hasselblad. That's because the numbers are for Japanese camera manufacturers only, which do in fact make up the vast majority of global digital camera sales.

I've listed the data for the last three years, below, but what can we can learn from the numbers?

The camera shipments data

The brands are listed below in order of camera shipments (and market share), with the year-on-year change in market share for 2025 in bold. You can find this data compiled at Mirrorless Rumors.

2025 ranking

Canon – 4.5 million units (45.7%, +2.5%)
Sony – 2.42 million units (24.6%, -3.9%)
Fujifilm– 1.16 million units (11.8%, +2.8%)
Nikon – 880,000 units (8.9%, -2.8%)
Panasonic – 430,000 units (4.4%, +1%)
Ricoh Imaging – 210,000 units (2.1%, +1.3%)
OM Digital – 150,000 units (1.5%, -0.4%)

2024 ranking

Canon – 3,53 million units (43.2%)
Sony – 2.33 million units (28.5%)
Nikon – 960,000 units (11.7%)
Fujifilm – 740,000 units (9.0%)
Panasonic – 280,000 units (3.4%)
OM Digital – 160,000 units (1.9%)
Ricoh Imaging – 70,000 units (0.8%)

2023 ranking

Canon – 3.34 million units (46.5%)
Sony – 2 million units (27.9%)
Nikon – 810,000 units (11.3%)
Fujifilm – 430,000 units (6.0%)
Panasonic – 260,000 units (3.6%)
OM Digital – 180,000 units (2.5%)
Ricoh Imaging – 60,000 units (0.8%)

What the data tells us (and what it doesn't)

To start with, it's important to understand that the numbers are for shipments only, and do not indicate revenue. Some brands specialize in pricey high-end gear, others cover a broader spectrum, meaning revenue rankings could be different.

For shipments, however, Canon remains the #1 camera brand, enjoying a huge growth in shipments for 2025. It covers more categories than any rival; DSLR, mirrorless and compacts, and has options for all budgets and experience levels, from the PowerShot V1 to the EOS R100 and EOS 5D Mark IV. Sony, meanwhile, has maintained its position in second place.

When we get to the rest, the numbers can be skewed somewhat year-on-year given the smaller numbers, based on busier or quieter product cycles. For example, Ricoh saw a big bump in shipments in 2025 with the launch of the GR IV, whereas it had no flagship new products the previous two years.

Nikon actually had a decent year, with its TechRadar award-winning Z5 II. Even still, it has plateaued somewhat in recent years, now with a shift in focus to cinema gear following its acquisition of RED which may have acted as a potential shipments handbrake in the immediate.

There's no denying Fujifilm's impressive growth, however. Its numbers go beyond individual models, and point to an overarching demand for retro gear, sparked by the success of its own X100 series, especially the X100VI from 2024. Going from 430,000 units in 2023, to 740,000 in 2024 and 1.16 million in 2025 is remarkable, especially with global component shortages and delays to stock (and those numbers do not take into account Instax).

Will the retro boom, which is also seen in Fujifilm's mirrorless cameras such as the X-E5, continue? 2026 has been a pretty quiet year so far for new products — in fact, no new Fujifilm or Nikon models so far — so I'm not so sure.

As a longtime Nikon fan, I'm a little worried. Its last new camera was the Zr from September 2025, and the Z5 II before that in April. It has seemingly abandoned beginner cameras and its Coolpix brand, too. Sony has arguably had the strongest year so far with the new A7R VI, FX5, and the revival of its popular bridge camera series with the new RX10 V, so I expect it to only extend its lead above Fujifilm.

What do you make of the shipment numbers? Which camera brand do you shoot with? Make sure you vote in our poll and have your say below.

• Logitech facing a class action lawsuit over tariff refunds, with the lawsuit alleging the company raised the price of some products to pass the cost of tariffs onto customers
• The US government collected an estimated $166 billion in IEEA tariffs which are to be returned to businesses, but their are no mechanisms in place to return the cost of tariff-inflated goods back to customers
• Nintendo and Sony are also facing lawsuits over tariff cost refunds

Following President Donald Trump’s return to power in January 2025, he almost immediately levied numerous International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEA) tariffs on imports of almost all goods coming into the United States.

According to Trump, the tariffs were imposed to boost domestic production of goods, and increase the purchasing of products manufactured in the US. Somewhat shortsightedly, the US was not able to suddenly change to the mass production of most imported goods and the tariffs were passed on to consumers as part of the price of imported goods.

Many of these and subsequent tariffs were deemed illegal by the Supreme Court of the United States, with around $166 billion in IEEA tariff revenue collected by the government to be refunded to businesses. Unfortunately, many businesses don’t really want to hand that money back to consumers, and Logitech is now being taken to court for it.

Tariffs refunded to businesses but not passed on to consumers

A class action lawsuit has been filed by Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, by the District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, against Logitech.

The lawsuit alleges Logitech raised the price of many of its products to cover the costs of the import tariffs, but the company has not made it possible for customers to claim back the tariff costs they covered.

As the companies were the ones who paid the tariffs, there is no mechanism in place for consumers to claim back the costs that companies silently imposed on them.

According to the lawsuit, Logitech investors were told by its executives that the price of its products had to be raised to offset the cost of the tariffs.

Around half of the Logitech product catalog saw price rises at around 14%, but the costs of some products were raised by as much as 25%.

Nintendo and Sony also in hot water

While the lawsuit singles out Logitech, numerous other companies have also been accused of raising the costs of goods to cover tariffs and then keeping the refunds for themselves.

For example, Nintendo’s operating profits were reported to be around $902 million between April 1 and June 30. But during the same period the previous year, the operating profit was around $360 million.

While some of this profit increase can be attributed to a boom in games sales and software purchases for the Switch and Switch 2, much of the profit has been alleged to have actually come from tariff refunds.

Nintendo claims to have covered the costs of tariffs itself despite the price of both Switch consoles rising by as much as $50 in 2025.

Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against the US government, demanding that the refunds from the “sweeping” and “constantly changing” tariffs be paid back with interest. Nintendo is also battling a lawsuit in court that demands the tariff refunds are also passed on to consumers.

Sony has been handed an estimated $508 million tariff refund, but raised the prices of key products such as the PlayStation 5 to cover the costs of the importation tariffs. A lawsuit has been filed, but Sony has made no indication that consumers who bought PlayStation consoles at elevated prices will see a dime back.

• Fans have descended on Sony's new 'It Happens on PS5' ad featuring Grand Theft Auto 6
• They're protesting the decision to end physical disc production in January 2028
• The ad campaign also highlights other upcoming games like Marvel's Wolverine and God of War Laufey

PlayStation fans still angry with Sony's plan to end physical game disc production have brigaded yet another video comment section, this time a PS5 ad featuring Grand Theft Auto 6.

Sony has just launched the 'It Happens on PS5' physical ad campaign across the world, which highlights "the biggest moments of play" featuring games such as Marvel’s Wolverine, 007 First Light, and God of War Laufey.

"Today, we’re launching a new It Happens on PS5 hero advert highlighting what’s available on PS5 as well as what’s ahead for players in the coming months," the accompanying PS blog reads.

"The advert invites players to discover what PS5 makes possible, taking viewers on a fast-paced journey through bold and unexpected moments, featuring larger-than-life scenes, from Giannis Antetokounmpo’s elite basketball skills that get the streets bouncing to a high-speed jet ski chase."

GTA 6 is also featured ahead of the game's November 19 launch, and while some fans are feeling the excitement, many are continuing to voice their disappointment with Sony and its decision to kill game discs in January 2028.

After previously swarming the comment section of the most recent Marvel's Wolverine cinematic trailer, as well as several other PlayStation videos, fans have now descended on the 'It Happens on PS5' ad to make their thoughts known.

"Discs used to happen on PS5," the top comment reads, as another user wrote, "It happens that there used to be discs."

If you continue scrolling through the comments, it's difficult to pinpoint any positive mention of the ad, with the majority either urging Sony to backtrack on its decision or criticising the company.

"I used to buy PS products for more than 30 years. It won't happen again," a fan said.

Despite the ongoing pushback, and after remaining silent on the matter for weeks, Sony CFO Lin Tao recently addressed the situation during the company's Q1 2026 earnings announcement, confirming that it is "cautiously" moving forward with its decision (via IGN).

While we know upcoming games like Marvel's Wolverine and God of War Laufey will have physical discs at launch, GTA 6's physical edition won't, and will instead offer a digital code in a box, which has also added to the controversy.

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick recently explained the reasoning for this decision, saying, "Our business is well over 90% digitally distributed. It's already a digital business."

• Sony CEO Hiroko Totoki says a release date for the PS6 has yet to be decided
• The global component shortage and trade wars have impacted Sony's decision-making
• Totoki says, "We need to take some action. Otherwise, we cannot survive in this landscape"

Sony CEO Hiroko Totoki has confirmed that the PlayStation 6 release date remains undecided due to the ongoing manufacturing component crisis and trade wars.

During an interview with The Wall Street Journal (via VGC), in which Totoki primarily discussed the company's television and movie business, the CEO briefly touched on the PS6 and the challenges of developing the next-generation PlayStation console.

Namely, the global RAM crisis, driven primarily by the rapid demand for AI data centers and seeing prices skyrocket, and the ongoing trade wars.

"Considering that importance, we need to take some action. Otherwise, we cannot survive in this landscape," Totoki said.

Analysts have previously predicted that the PS6 could launch in 2027, which The Wall Street Journal also mentioned in its interview; however, due to the component shortage, Sony hasn't decided the launch date internally.

"Totoki said the company still hasn’t fixed a date for PS6’s launch," The Wall Street Journal states.

Totoki last spoke about the PS6 in May but was hesitant to share anything about the console, saying that the current circumstances regarding the RAM crisis, "memory price is also expected to be very high [in] FY 2027."

"We have not yet decided on at what timing we will launch the new console, or at what prices," Totoki said at the time. "So we would like to really observe and follow the situation.

"Looking at the current circumstances, the memory price is also expected to be very high [in] FY 2027, because there will still be a shortage of supply. So under that assumption, we must think carefully what we will do."

There have also been numerous claims from industry insiders, such as Moore's Law is Dead, who have suggested a 2027 launch date as well, and even claimed that Sony will launch its next-generation PlayStation with three devices in 2027, including two consoles and a companion handheld.

Recent comments from Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino also seem to suggest that the next-generation PlayStation console could be a handheld.

However, Following Sony's announcement that it will end the production of physical game discs in January 2028, analysts have determined that the next-gen PS6 console will launch in 2028.

According to Ampere analyst Piers Harding-Rolls, the all-digital plan telegraphs Sony's upcoming plans, and the "current expectation is that the console will launch at the end of 2028."

The analyst also suggested that "at a minimum," the standard version of the PS6 won't have a physical media disc drive since Sony will be looking for ways to reduce the cost of its next-gen hardware, and "this is an easy win."

RGB TVs have become the talk of the TV world this year, with just about every brand releasing their own RGB model. While the tech is still in its infancy, having been introduced by Hisense in 2025, the tech is being touted as an OLED-killer, delivering much higher brightness and bolder colors akin to a mini-LED, while also delivering the contrast and black tones of an OLED.

So far, I’ve tested the Hisense UR8 RGB mini-LED side-by-side with the Samsung QN80H (a traditional mini-LED), where the UR8’s color didn’t wow me, but its contrast and backlight control did. I’ve also tested the Sony Bravia 7 II RGB mini-LED side-by-side with one of 2026’s best TVs, the LG C6 OLED, and while the C6 came out on top, the Bravia 7 II showed real potential for RGB tech.

But, how do two RGB TVs compare? I’ve swapped out the 55-inch Bravia 7 II for a 65-inch Bravia 7 II and, thanks to some fortunate timing, the flagship Samsung R95H Micro RGB TV has landed in our testing lab at the same time. For context, a 65-inch Bravia 7 II costs roughly $2,599 / £1,999 / AU$3,995, while a 65-inch R95H costs $2,999 / £3,099 / AU$5,295. So, while prices are relatively close in the US (when you’re spending this much money), they are in different price brackets in the UK and Australia.

One note here: as the Samsung R95H has a matte screen, this can cause a red tint in photos that's not visible in-person.

Colors

Watching The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, with both TVs in their Movie modes (Movie for the R95H, Cinema for the Bravia 7 II), I noticed that in their default settings, the R95H appeared to be overblowing its brightness, resulting in some clipping of bright objects. I found that dropping the R95H’s brightness from its default 50 (max) down to 45 or 40 was better for the picture. The color luminance was certainly impressive on the R95H though, with the Lumas’ colors looking extremely bright and vibrant on screen. The Bravia 7 II’s colors had more depth and richness to them, having a lot more boldness that reminded me of an OLED.

Both TVs' color accuracy for the red and green of Mario and Luigi’s overalls respectively, and the vivid pink of Peach’s dress, were very good, but there’s no denying the R95H has much more pop on screen. The R95H’s colors can look a little washed out next to the Bravia 7 II at times, as the latter has such richness in its color profile. While the R95H delivered the brightness of the animation, it was hard to ignore how rich and deep the Bravia 7 II’s colors were.

Moving to Speed Racer, a real-world movie with equally cartoon-ish vibrant colors, the Bravia 7 II once again showcased richer, deeper colors, giving more detail to the gaudy outfits and decor of the 1960s-inspired aesthetic. The R95H once again delivered on the brightness, which really did make colors explode on screen.

On the surface, the R95H seemed to sacrifice some color accuracy in favor of the pop on screen and in some cases this worked. The orange walls and floors of the Racer home and Pops Racer’s shirt were much more vivid on the R95H, but had that nice clarity on the Bravia 7 II. Yellow however, such as Mom Racer’s apron, was much bolder on the Bravia 7 II.

Switching between picture modes, the Bravia 7 II’s Cinema and Professional (its equivalent Filmmaker Mode) were consistent in their color depth and volume, but Cinema mode suited the more colorful movies. On the R95H, while Filmmaker Mode had a nice accuracy to it, the colors were a bit lifeless in comparison to Movie mode. While the R95H’s Movie mode did sometimes sacrifice accuracy, its sheer brightness was better for Speed Racer.

Contrast and backlight

Firing up the opening scenes of The Batman, an often challenging disc for backlit TVs, with both models set to their more accurate Filmmaker modes (Professional for the Bravia 7 II), they do an excellent job. Contrast was strong on both TVs, with a great balance between light and dark tones, such as wall lamps and dark wood walls in Mayor Mitchell’s house, or the overhead lights with the black walls of the Batcave. In the default settings, the R95H again demonstrates its higher brightness, which results in stronger perceived contrast compared to the Bravia 7 II.

Dark tones were pleasingly rich on both TVs as well, and there was very little sign of blooming when viewed head-on. From an angle however, both TVs did show some signs of blooming during dark scenes, with the R95H’s more obvious than the Bravia 7 II’s. The Bravia 7 II did sometimes show some black crush, resulting in detail loss in objects, while the R95H did a better job maintaining these details, such as the texture in Batman’s armor and the lapel of Gordon’s coat.

Both TVs did a great job with shadows, but during The Batman, the Bravia 7 II cast deeper, inkier shadows across people’s faces. Switching to Dark City, which features plenty of these high contrast shadow shots, this was actually reversed. The R95H cast darker shadows that delivered a higher perceived contrast compared to the Bravia 7 II.

Black levels looked great in Dark City on both sets, although interestingly, in a shot where Murdoch talks to the hotel clerk, I noticed the R95H was subject to black crush this time and the Bravia 7 II actually had better shadow detail. Some dark scenes in the movie did reveal some more blooming, moreso on the R95H when viewed from an angle.

Trying out some black and white content, the R95H’s higher brightness creates a greater dynamic range and higher contrast in black and white movies. Watching Dead Man, any scene during the day has much more punch on the R95H, thanks to the aforementioned brighter whites. Both TVs do demonstrate deep dark tones though, with a good range of grays in between. The 4K disc is in SDR and when switching from Filmmaker to Movie, the Bravia 7 II has a significant brightness upgrade over the R95H, though the R95H’s brightness is much lower by default in this mode.

Brightness

Starting off with measurements, the R95H is significantly brighter with both TVs set to HDR Movie mode. The R95H clocked in at 1,960 nits HDR peak brightness, while the Bravia 7 II hit 1,163 nits. It’s a similar story in Filmmaker/Professional mode, as the R95H hits 1,977 peak HDR brightness and the Bravia 7 II hits 1,114 nits.

Fullscreen HDR brightness, however, is where things get interesting. In Movie/Cinema mode, the R95H clocks in at 607 nits, while the Bravia 7 II measures 830 nits. This means the Sony should display larger bright areas on screen with more punch and vibrancy.

Watching real-world content, the R95H demonstrates much higher brightness than the Bravia 7 II, especially in Movie mode and with HDR content on screen. Watching Lawrence of Arabia, specifically the desert scene where Lawrence and his guide fetch water from a well, the R95H demonstrates significantly higher perceived brightness, with the white sands and blue sky looking much more vibrant on the R95H. While the Bravia 7 II shows more detail in brighter areas, such as the patterns in the ground, the R95H clearly wins in the brightness battle here. This is interesting given that the Bravia 7 II had the higher HDR fullscreen brightness.

The same is true with more colorful movies. Going back to Speed Racer, the R95H shows much punchier highlights, such as the lights of the Mach 5, as well as glossier whites of the Mach 5 and Speed’s helmet. I did find that switching to each TV’s respective Filmmaker Mode resulted in much closer brightness, though the R95H’s peak areas were still a little brighter.

As for bright room viewing, the R95H shows how effective its anti-glare, matte screen is. Even with darker movies such as The Batman, there’s no sign of mirror-like reflections at any point. For the Bravia 7 II, bright room viewing is more of a challenge. With a brighter scene, such as the desert one from Lawrence of Arabia, the Bravia 7 II does a good job in a bright room. Any darker or high-contrast scenes, and mirror-like reflections are clearer.

The best buy

Which TV you should buy from these two really comes down to what region you’re in and your budget. In the US, it’s a close contest, whereas in the UK and Australia, the Bravia 7 II is much cheaper. In terms of actual performance, both TVs did well. Both TVs rendered challenging dark scenes accurately, with hints of blooming on both (though they were sometimes more obvious on the R95H). Both TVs showed excellent color reproduction, with the R95H showing higher color luminance, where the Bravia 7 II showed more color volume.

It’s difficult to choose between these two TVs, and while I preferred the Bravia 7 II in some reference scenes, especially with color, the R95H performed better in darker, more contrast-y scenes. While this is a battle of a mid-range RGB (Bravia 7 II) vs a flagship RGB (R95H), the Bravia 7 II puts up a heck of a fight and is the better value option for the budget conscious. If however money isn’t an issue, the R95H is the TV to pick.

Do either of these TVs topple OLED? For my money, not quite yet, but the Bravia 7 II delivers some seriously impressive colors and the R95H shows again what RGB tech can do for backlight control. OLED, it's definitely time for it to start taking note.

• Marvel's Wolverine will feature New Game Plus at launch
• The game will also offer extra features like Mission Replay and a Nightmare Doors side activity
• Nightmare Doors contains trials where players "confront Logan's nightmares to uncover his past"

Marvel's Wolverine is shaping up to be a big hit for 2026, and now Insomniac Games has revealed even more features that players can expect when the game launches next month.

Insomniac has confirmed that, unlike Marvel's Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, Marvel's Wolverine will launch with New Game Plus, allowing players to replay the game with all their upgrades, unlocked suits, and more.

"In a New Game Plus, you can use all of your loadout and progression that you already unlocked," senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed told IGN. "You can choose whatever suit you want. So there's some fun things that happen there. And also there's some adaptations that are only available in New Game Plus. So there's some fresh gameplay for folks."

Insomniac head of technology Mike Fitzgerald added that these adaptations, which are unlockable buffs, let players "amp up the difficulty" or make Wolverine "much more powerful and aggressive character."

Alongside New Game Plus, the game will also offer Mission Replay, a feature that lets players rerun any mission for fun or to find collectibles, whiskey bottles that act as power-ups for Wolverine’s progression, and material crates holding raw materials that can be used to unlock new suits.

Another major feature is Nightmare Doors, a side activity containing trials where players "confront Logan's nightmares to uncover his past." According to Reiner-Reed, Nightmare Doors is "a story-driven adventure" where "Logan is pulled through uncovering these mysteries of his past. But you can go off the beaten path."

In these trials, Reiner-Reed added, players will encounter "manifestations of the horrible things happening in Logan's mind."

"There's many of those throughout the game with different types of trials," the developer said.

Marvel's Wolverine launches exclusively on PlayStation 5 on September 16 and will be "fully playable" on disc. The game's Performance Mode will also run at 60fps with ray tracing enabled on the base PS5, which Insomniac says is the default mode.

• Insomniac Games says the X-Men don't exist in Marvel's Wolverine since mutants aren't safe in this world
• Narrative director Walt Williams says mutants are outsiders, and Logan's POV is the perfect fit for this story
• Williams says, "We wanted to bring players back to that mindset of that these are characters who exist on the outside"

Insomniac Games has finally explained why the X-Men don't exist in Marvel's Wolverine, and it's all about telling a story where mutants aren't safe.

In the upcoming superhero game, Logan, aka Wolverine, is a former member of the mutant black ops unit, Team X, which also includes Sabretooth and Mystique, meaning the X-Men haven't been established in this world.

"So Team X is canonical. It is Logan's first team in his history," narrative director Walt Williams said in an interview with IGN. "It was a black ops team from the '70s made up of wetworks mutant workers. So in telling Wolverine's story, we wanted to bring it back to the beginning of where his story really began in that long string of teams. Because as we know, he's been a member of many teams by this point in his 50-plus year history.

"But really what we were looking to do is, because superheroes have become so mainstream at this point in just pop culture and everything through TV shows, comics, movies, and everything, that even especially with our own Spider-Man games, these are characters with superpowers that a lot of the world has accepted, that they are celebrated. They have parades, they are honored and stuff. But mutants at the core are outsiders, even within the Marvel universe. And we have not really had that aspect of them be brought out a lot lately in the stories that we get in the bigger mainstream."

According to Williams, the studio wanted to tell a story where mutants are still outsiders and don't have a safe place to go, such as the X-Mansion. Logan's point of view, he explained, is the "perfect" way to get that across to the player.

"We wanted to bring players back to that mindset of that these are characters who exist on the outside," he continued. "They are not superheroes. They don't have a safe space. They are people who are living in shadow. They are people who are hiding their powers from the world because they are afraid of what would happen if people would discover them.

"And so if we had started this story with the X-Men in existence, there would already be that aspect of a safe place for them. And we wanted to remind people that existence for a mutant is not safe. It's hard. It's scary. And entering that world through Logan, it really felt like the best POV possible."

Williams goes on to describe Logan as an "incredibly complex, layered character that has so much potential to write," but he's also "an outsider's outsider," even among other mutants.

"He was that perfect POV for us to be able to enter into that mutant world and begin to understand just how much mutants do not feel as if they belong anywhere," he said.

Marvel's Wolverine launches exclusively on PS5 on September 16, and its Performance Mode will run at 60 frames-per-second (fps) with ray tracing enabled on the base PlayStation 5.

• Marvel's Wolverine's Performance Mode runs at 60fps with ray tracing on PS5
• Insomniac Games says this is the default mode
• Senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed says, "The game feels super smooth"

Insomniac Games has confirmed Marvel's Wolverine's Performance Mode will run at 60 frames-per-second (fps) with ray tracing enabled on the base PlayStation 5.

That's according to senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed, who told IGN that the team wanted to make 60fps with ray tracing the default mode on PS5, something the studio has never offered before in games like Marvel's Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2.

"From early on in development, we knew we wanted to make this 60fps, working on the base PS5 in performance mode," Reiner-Reed said. "And we've definitely been able to accomplish that. The game feels super smooth."

Insomniac's head of technology Mike Fitzgerald continued, saying the studio has always had these fidelity and performance modes in previous games, and always "sort of last minute" added the performance mode with ray tracing.

"So for this game from the start, we said, ‘You know what? We know we're confident we can ship this now," Fitzgerald said. "This is going to be a 60 frames per second game with ray tracing as the PS5 should have. We're going to build the game around this and towards this.’ And it's the default mode for the first time for us in one of our games. It’s important for the presentation.”

Marvel's Wolverine launches exclusively on PS5 on September 16 and will be "fully playable" on disc.

Elsewhere, Insomniac Games has explained why Logan's suits regenerate after combat, with Fitzgerald explaining that there are "some practicalities to it" and "you can’t play through most of the game wearing just shredded rags on his body."

• Insomniac Games explains why Logan's suit in Marvel's Wolverine heals itself
• Head of technology Mike Fitzgerald says there are "some practicalities to it" and "you can’t play through most of the game wearing just shredded rags on his body"
• He adds that the team invested a lot of time in showing damage progression to suits

Insomniac Games has explained why Logan's suit in Marvel's Wolverine regenerates after fights, and its reason makes a lot of sense.

If you've watched any of Marvel's Wolverine trailers, you've probably noticed that after bloody battles, Logan's fancy hero suit heals itself of any combat damage.

Wolverine can heal his injuries very quickly thanks to his innate mutation, and since his skeleton is coated in an alloy called adamantium, he's near-indestructible. Initially, fans thought this might be why his suit was regenerating in the game, or perhaps it was even nanotech; however, Insomniac has settled the matter, explaining that it's simply about keeping the superhero vibe intact.

"I think mostly there’s some practicalities to it,” head of technology Mike Fitzgerald said in an interview with IGN. "You can’t play through most of the game wearing just shredded rags on his body. So we find the right balance between clothing that reflects the gameplay you’re doing and this brutal combat and the realities of that, and then finding the right moments to have it restore itself so you get that right cinematic feel of Wolverine."

Senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed also commented on finding the right balance, adding, "Early on you would be playing through missions and your clothes are shredded for way too long. You don't feel as powerful as you're playing through. So yeah, we definitely found that right balance was the right thing to say."

While Logan's suit will heal after fights, Fitzgerald explained that the team still had to show damage progression across his different suits and enemies, as well.

"We invested a lot in how damage is reflected on him in his suit, on enemies and their suits," Fitzgerald explained. "And then as you attack them, the blood sprays coming off them are some really interesting fluid tech. So it's not just pre-baked visual effects. These are actual blood particles coming out.

"They hit the ground and make the exact splatter mark they would make if they land on Logan. They leave blood there. If he walks through water, it washes off and leaves blood swirls in the water."

Marvel's Wolverine launches on PS5 on September 16. Insomniac recently confirmed that it will be "fully playable" on disc following Sony's decision to end physical disc production.

• Dolby confirms that Dolby Vision 2 HDR can come to existing 4K Blu-ray hardware, including both discs and players
• However, it will require the player manufacturers to work with Dolby on updates, and Sony says it has no plans to update, with no comment from Panasonic or Magnetar
• Dolby says that Dolby Vision 2 TVs will still show visual improvements with Dolby Vision 1 discs, because of the upgraded processing engine

Dolby Vision 2, the next generation of Dolby's HDR format, is rolling out to its first TVs right now — and Dolby answered one my most burning questions about the new tech, which is whether it can come to 4K Blu-ray as well as streaming.

Digging into the answer turns out to be mixed news. It was positive from a technical side: the team confirmed that Dolby Vision 2 can work on existing Blu-ray disc and players. However, making it work will require a firmware update to ensure full compatibility — and that looks like it could be the problem.

I sat down with Dolby Laboratories' vice-president of home devices, Chris Turkstra, and director of business strategy Jonas Klittmark. As you'd expect, both men were big cheerleaders for the new technology. But they were also realistic about the challenges around existing Blu-ray players in particular.

"UHD Blu-ray is fantastic," Klittmark said. "It's hard to get 120 megabits over streaming, right? So if you're the kind of person who cares about that, like I am, then it still makes sense."

However, "the problem with UHD Blu-ray is that the industry behind the consumer electronics devices that power it… some of them are not even there any more. My player happens to be an Oppo from 10 years ago, and I think those guys closed shop half a decade ago."

As he explains, that poses a potential problem for full Blu-ray compatibility. "While we wouldn't need any new hardware for those devices to have the optimal behavior for Dolby Vision 2, they would need a software update to make sure they're configured correctly."

And so far, the manufacturers still doing Blu-ray don't seem to be champing at the bit. We reached out to Panasonic, Sony and Magnetar to ask about their Dolby Vision 2 plans, and only Sony responded — and confirmed that that it won't update its existing players, as things stand. A statement from the company read:

"We do not plan to provide a software/firmware update to support Dolby Vision 2 on the current Blu-ray player lineup."

Why does Dolby Vision 2 require an update?

"We would love to see Dolby Vision 2 come to all devices. And I think over time, it will come to many more devices than TVs," Klittman says. "But UHD Blu-ray is a is a problematic one."

While supporting Dolby Vision 2 requires new hardware on TVs (it only works on specific TV processors), it doesn't require it for players because all the players need to do is pass data encoded in the stream onto the TV, and then the TV does the hard processing. However, the players need to know how to handle that data: "Since these are old players, there's probably a software update needed for many of them," says Klittmark.

Dolby's team highlighted that their particular concern is getting the data accurately over the HDMI connection. "There are so many nuances over HDMI," Klittmark says. "Different ways to prioritize things, different transmission formats, et cetera... I don't want to oversimplify the work involved. It's about making sure that all the Dolby Vision 2 Content Intelligence, as we're calling it, actually makes it through, and that the device is configured correctly for the best HDMI transmission."

As Chris Turkstra explains, the software update would be needed "in the formatting tools of the device. It's a fairly complex amount of change... while we definitely would love to have it, I don't know if there will be enough [demand] to get people to do that work."

Of course, the Dolby Vision 2 data would also need to be on the disc itself, so existing movies won't take advantage of it, and I doubt it's a format that will get people replacing their existing discs with a new version — but still, for new releases and fresh restorations, it would be great to have the extra accuracy it's designed to bring.

Dolby Vision 2 and 4K Blu-ray should still be better, even without upgrades

So what happens if your player's manufacturer is long gone, or is still around but doesn't want to put the effort into a firmware upgrade? You should still see some benefits from the new generation of Dolby Vision if you have a compatible TV, especially the new and significantly more powerful image engine.

"When it's just regular Dolby Vision, your Dolby Vision 2 TV will still be able to give you a lot of the benefits that we're talking about, including for UHD Blu-ray," Klittman says. "That's what's exciting: that will work for UHD Blu-ray regardless of whether the players get updated or not."

The upgraded processing engine at the heart of Dolby Vision 2 is capable of doing more advanced work with the existing metadata in Dolby Vision, and Dolby has said that there should be a clear improvement. I've seen a demo of Dolby Vision 2 processing with original Dolby Vision content on cheaper TVs, and there's a visible difference.

Of course, what I'm most interested in is how DV2-exclusive options such as Precision Black — in which data about how the creator viewed the mastering monitor when finalizing the color grade can be used to improve HDR visibility and accuracy — could help really dark movies to bring through more shadow detail while still staying true to the master.

Sadly cinephiles may face a frustrating choice if their favorite movies get the Dolby Vision 2 treatment on streaming: get the 4K Blu-ray version with the best picture quality overall, or stream in a lower bitrate but with potentially closer accuracy to the mastered image.

• Helldivers 2 has been added to the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog
• Its arrival comes alongside the new Devoid of Liberty story update
• A new Warhammer 40,000 warbond has also been added to the game

Helldivers 2, Arrowhead Game Studios' critically acclaimed multiplayer shooter, has officially landed on PlayStation Plus just in time for two huge updates.

As of today, Helldivers 2 is part of the PS Plus Game Catalog and is available to PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium members, reaching even more players since its successful 2024 launch. According to Sony, the game has now surpassed 22.9 million players across PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.

"Players continue to recognize the value of PlayStation Plus and an ever-evolving Game Catalog with strong content specially curated for the PlayStation community," said Mary Yee, senior vice president of marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment in a recent blog post.

"With the addition of Helldivers 2, a game that has already been enjoyed by millions of players worldwide, we’re further strengthening the value of PlayStation Plus and creating more opportunities for members to discover and engage with exceptional games."

The arrival of Helldivers 2 to PS Plus also comes alongside the launch of a new chapter, titled 'Devoid of Liberty,' a horror-themed narrative arc that "introduces the first signs of a nightmarish threat emerging from a mysterious void in the galaxy."

The opening will send Helldivers to the void as mutated Illuminate organisms begin appearing across the battlefield, and they'll enter a new biome filled with familiar foes in new forms.

In addition, the update arrives alongside a new warbond available for purchase in collaboration with Warhammer 40,000.

The 'Helldivers 2 x Warhammer 40,000: Castellan’s Creed Legendary Warbond' brings iconic elements of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe to the game, "drawing inspiration from the Cadian Kasrkin, the elite shock assault troops of Warhammer 40,000’s Astra Militarum," and offers new armors, weapons, and vehicle patterns.

• Sony has just revealed a new version of Ghost of Yotei
• The Complete Edition launches on October 1 and comes with a new expansion called Echoes of Sekigahara
• Existing owners will have to pay to upgrade their copies

Sony has announced a new Complete Edition version of 2025's Ghost of Yotei that comes bundled with an all-new expansion called Echoes of Sekigahara.

Echoes of Sekigahara is said to be a narrative-based addition that focuses on a new figure from protagonist Atsu's past. It introduces a previously unseen valley with new enemies, heavy weapons, armor sets, dyes, and more to discover.

It launches on October 1, 2026, alongside a single-player survival mode called Most Wanted. Andrew Goldfarb, the senior communications manager at developer Sucker Punch Productions, described this as the studio's "spin on a roguelike" in a new PlayStation Blog post.

"You’ll accept bounties in order to start new runs, where taking down enemies will earn you perks, as well as unlock additional characters to play as," he wrote, and teased that there will be "more to show soon".

Alongside these two new arrivals, the Ghost of Yotei Complete Edition contains all of the content previously part of the digital deluxe edition. It will cost just $69.99 / £69.99, which is the same price the standard edition cost at launch and $10 / £10 cheaper than the digital deluxe version was.

If you haven't bought the game yet, then this package seems like a great deal and you can actually buy it right now — though bear in mind you won't be able to access the new content until October 1.

There is, however, a big catch if you already own a copy of Ghost of Yotei.

Existing owners will have to splash out $14.99 / around £10 to upgrade their copy to the Complete Edition version, which is pretty egregious in my eyes — especially for digital deluxe buyers.

Those players will be parting with a total of $94.98 to experience what everyone who waited just one year can now get for 70 bucks.

What a way to reward some of your biggest fans, Sony!

There is some good news though. Even if you don't pay for the upgrade, all owners of the game will benefit from a new patch on October 1 which includes a range of quality of life features and a cool Beauty of Yotei mode with screensaver-like environmental shots.

According to the description of the new trailer on YouTube, there will be a physical PlayStation 5 version available as well, which might come as a surprise given Sony's plan to wind down the production of game discs.

It wouldn’t be a PlayStation exclusive without some matching hardware, right?

It’s an approach we’ve seen the gaming giant take before, and personally, I’ve always had a soft spot for the various Spider-Man-themed PS5 editions. Those consoles understood that a limited-edition PlayStation doesn’t necessarily need to reinvent the hardware itself. Rather, the right colors and a design that makes the console feel like part of the game.

Sony is taking a very similar approach with Marvel’s Wolverine, by unveiling a collection of matching hardware, including a limited-edition PS5 Digital Edition console — just be ready for the price, though.

More critically, though, we also have two DualSense controllers and console covers for both PS5 Slim and PS5 Pro. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, you get your pick between Wolverine's iconic yellow and a more subtle but still on-theme choice of 'Adamantium'.

Here's the full lineup, which lands on September 15, 2026, but will go up for preorder on August 19, 2026.

• DualSense Wireless Controller in Marvel’s Wolverine Battle Yellow Limited Edition: $84.99 / £74.99
• DualSense Wireless Controller in Marvel’s Wolverine Adamantium Limited Edition: $84.99 / £74.99
• PlayStation 5 Cover in Battle Yellow Limited Edition: $74.99 / £64.99
• PlayStation 5 Pro Cover in Marvel’s Wolverine Battle Yellow Limited Edition: $74.99 / £64.99
• PlayStation 5 Pro Cover in Marvel’s Wolverine Adamantium Limited Edition: $74.99 / £64.99
• PlayStation 5 Digital in Marvel’s Wolverine Battle Yellow Limited Edition Bundle with DualSense controller: $649.99 / £569.99

The center of the collection is Marvel’s Wolverine Battle Yellow Limited Edition PS5 Digital Edition bundle. This pairs the iconic yellow console with a matching DualSense controller and a copy of the game. The design is inspired by Insomniac’s “Battle Reborn” suit, with the familiar yellow finish broken up by claw marks across the hardware.

And it works quite well, as rather than slapping a Wolverine logo onto a yellow PS5, Sony has made the console look as though Wolverine himself has gotten his claws on and into it.

That design language carries over to the standalone Battle Yellow DualSense, as well as limited-edition console covers for existing PS5 and PS5 Pro owners. So you don't necessarily need to buy another PS5 to bring a little Wolverine into your setup, which is especially good news considering the price increases. And yes, the bundle does carry a hefty $649.99 / £569.99 price tag, but you can get the Wolverine yellow DualSense for $84.99 / £74.99 or snap up a PS5 cover for $74.99 / £64.99.

Sony's also giving you the option of trading the yellow finish for a metallic look inspired by the Adamantium material bonded to Logan. It’s a much more understated design, but arguably a better fit if you want something a little more subtle. This will be available as a cover for the PS5 Pro exclusively or as a DualSense Controller.

“I wanted to show Wolverine at his fiercest for Marvel’s Wolverine Limited Edition PS5 Console bundle and accessories,” explained Jock, a graphic artist who worked on Marvel’s Wolverine, who starts by drawing and was excited to ‘marry cutting-edge hardware with the energy and looseness of hand-drawn ink.’

“I’m stunned by how well the console and accessories captured the raw energy of the drawing, bringing Wolverine to life in a completely unique way,” concluded Jock. And it does look stunning and instantly recognizable as Wolverine.

You can see that philosophy pretty clearly in the final designs.

Preorders for Marvel’s Wolverine limited-edition hardware begin August 19 at 10 a.m. local time, with everything releasing and launching officially September 15 alongside the game.

So, yes, it wouldn't really be a major PlayStation exclusive without some matching hardware, and if Sony’s goal was to make a PS5 look like Wolverine had personally gotten his claws into it, mission accomplished.

There is something to be said about doubling down on physical products as Sony is pushing the charge with ending discs for titles. Good news is that along with the title art for Marvel’s Wolverine, Insomniac has confirmed a physical disc is in the box and will launch the game properly as well.

• Marvel's Wolverine is "fully playable" on a PS5 disc
• Insomniac Games says it encourages players to download the day-one patch when it arrives
• The studio's comments come after Sony shared its plan to quit making discs

Insomniac Games has clarified that Marvel's Wolverine will be "fully playable" on disc following Sony's decision to end physical disc production.

Speaking to Eurogamer, senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed essentially confirmed that the upcoming superhero game will be among the last PS5 games to be fully playable on disc, before they're phased out in January 2028.

"Marvel's Wolverine will come out in digital and physical [versions] and the game will be fully playable on the disc when you purchase it," Reiner-Reed said, but urged players to download the day-one update.

"With that said," the developer said, "we want people or encourage people to download that day-one patch because we are right now working on - or we're continuing over the next few months before release - to work on polish and some bug fixing."

Head of technology Mike Fitzgerald added, "I would say we're perfectionists. We take every minute we can get to just tweak this little thing, make everything a little bit better - we're gonna squeeze as much out of it as we can. And so if players download that patch, they get that little bit of extra time."

Despite the backlash that followed Sony's announcement to quit making physical discs, the company recently committed to its plan. PlayStation fans are still making their feelings known, however, and even descended on the latest Wolverine trailer to share how much they care for physical games.

Eurogamer also asked Insomniac about the situation at the game's preview event, but Fitzgerald said it wanted to focus on the game.

"We have been working on this for so long," he said, "we're so excited to have everyone in the office getting to spend time with the game, and I want to make sure we spend time talking about that."

Marvel's Wolverine launches on PS5 on September 16.

Budget earbuds don't get much better than this: both in terms of quality and value for money. That's what makes it so easy to recommend the Sony WF-C510 Earbuds at Amazon for £34.99 (was £54.99).

You'd usually expect to make a handful of serious compromises when buying such a cheap pair of earbuds, but the Sony WF-C510 offer a surprising amount for such a low price. Audio is punchy, the fit is comfy, and the battery life impresses. For £35, you can't really ask for more.

Yes, there are a couple of features that it's a shame to miss out on, especially active noise cancellation, but that's to be expected when dealing with budget buds. Premium features like this aren't always necessary if you want a quality pair of affordable earbuds to listen to music or enjoy streaming videos — and that's where the Sony WF-C510 excel.

Buy the Sony WF-C510 at Amazon

Our 4.5-star review of the Sony WF-510 goes into more detail on what makes them such a good pair of budget-friendly earbuds. In fact, we were so impressed with them that we'd even recommend them over the much pricier Apple AirPods.

These are cheap earbuds that still offer a bold and vibrant sound. Of course, the bass won't be as strong as that of more premium options or over-ear alternatives, but you still get solid overall quality for the price.

If there's anything against them, it's that regular commuters or those who like to focus up when working in a noisy office might miss the active noise cancellation. If that's not going to be an issue for you, though, then the Sony WF-510 are easily some of the best cheap earbuds you can buy while they're down to this super-low sale price.

• Nintendo has reported that 61.5% of its sales between March 30 and June 30, 2026, were digital purchases
• This means 38.5% were physical sales
• Digital sales also include other add-on software and downloadable content (DLC)

While Sony commits to ending the production of game discs, Nintendo has reported that almost 40% of its software sales are physical.

That's according to Nintendo's latest financial report for the first quarter of fiscal year ending March 2027, which confirms that between March 30 and June 30, 2026, 61.5% of Nintendo's sales were from digital purchases, meaning 38.5% came from physical sales.

The Mario maker reports that in the previous quarter, it earned 132.7 billion yen from digital sales alone, a 90% year-on-year increase and a 2.2% increase in the proportion of digital sales compared to the same time last year.

Software sales for the Switch 2 also increased by 9.2% year-on-year to 9.46 million units, and original Switch software increased by 38.6% year-on-year to 33.81 million units.

However, Nintendo confirmed the 61.5% digital sales include other software, such as Switch Online subscriptions, Switch 2 Edition upgrades, download-only titles, and downloadable content (DLC) purchases, which would boost digital sales. It also doesn't include digital copies of Mario Kart World, that would be bundled with a console.

Meanwhile, for physical units, net sales for software bundled with hardware are classified as hardware sales.

"As a result, although bundled software such as Mario Kart World is included in the number of software units sold, the corresponding revenue is not recognized as software sales or digital sales," Nintendo said.

Nevertheless, the ratio is significant, and 38.5% in physical sales suggests that Nintendo doesn't plan to abandon boxed games any time soon, unlike Sony.

The PlayStation company shared its plan to retire the production of game discs by January 2028 last month, and has recently confirmed that it is "cautiously" moving forward with its decision despite the backlash (via IGN).

Although some game companies are willing to fight to keep physical games alive, Capcom has recently stated it's unlikely to be significantly impacted by the death of physical games, because 90% of its unit sales are digital.

• A new PlayStation 5 firmware update has been released for testing
• The update automatically enables PSSR 2.0 on PS5 Pro, even for games that support the previous version of PSSR
• This means better image quality for titles yet to receive the 2.0 upgrade

Sony has released a new PlayStation 5 firmware update for its beta program that automatically enables PSSR 2.0 (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) on PS5 Pro.

That's according to a new ResetEra post, which claims that emails have been sent to beta users allowing them to test out the upcoming features before they're released.

The most significant update is the addition of PSSR 2.0, the latest version of Sony's enhanced-performance technology, built for PS5 Pro. With this beta firmware patch, the 'Enhance PSSR Image Quality' option is automatically enabled by default, but can be toggled on or off in the settings menu.

As per the patch notes (thanks, PushSquare), when players enable this feature, enhanced PSSR is used "even for games that support the previous version of PSSR so you can enjoy a sharper and clearer visual experience."

PSSR 2.0 began rolling out in February, with Resident Evil Requiem becoming the first game to receive the update before a handful of other titles.

"The upgraded PSSR represents another step in our commitment to evolving the PS5 Pro experience," Sony said at the time. "Moving forward, most new PS5 Pro titles will launch with support for this enhanced PSSR, ensuring players continue to see improvements in image quality and performance."

Supported games include Silent Hill f, Monster Hunter Wilds, Dragon's Dogma 2, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Control, Alan Wake 2, and more.

With the latest PS5 Pro beta update, players will be able to enjoy improved image quality for PSSR-supported games yet to be upgraded to PSSR 2.0.

Alongside this feature, Sony has added an option to turn off Bluetooth in certain countries or regions, in order to manage controller connections at esports venues and similar locations. You can check out the full patch notes below.

• We've turned on Enhance PSSR Image Quality as a default setting. When you update the system software, this setting automatically turns on. When you enable this feature, enhanced PSSR is used even for games that support the previous version of PSSR so you can enjoy a sharper and clearer visual experience.　
  • To turn off this setting, go to Settings > Screen and Video > Video Output > Enhance PSSR Image Quality.
  • This feature is available only on PS5 Pro.
• We’ve changed the following features for PS5 consoles and PS5 Pro consoles in certain countries or regions.
  • If you go to Settings > Accessories > General > Advance Settings and select Turn Off Bluetooth, you’re no longer able to put your console into rest mode. Additionally, HDMI link is no longer supported when you select Turn Off Bluetooth.
  • The Turn Off Bluetooth function is for managing controller connections at esports venues and similar locations. Do not use this feature for any other purpose.
• We've improved system software performance and stability.

Sony Inzone M10S II: Two-minute review

The Sony Inzone M10S was one of the best gaming monitors of 2024, offering uncompromising performance and a suite of practical tournament-ready features that made it the perfect choice for both professional and aspiring esports players.

Now Sony is back with the Inzone M10S II, a successor that delivers a number of small but nevertheless impactful upgrades while maintaining everything that made the original so good. It’s the same 2560 x 1440 resolution, but feels even snappier thanks to an increased 540Hz refresh rate and a lower 0.02ms response time. There’s even a dual mode, letting you bump the resolution down to 720p for a staggering 720Hz picture — invaluable for Counter-Strike 2 or Rocket League.

If that wasn’t enough, it’s now even brighter, coming in at up to 1,500 nits rather than 1,300, with the same rich colors and impressive contrast. There’s a new anti-glare coating on this model as well, which does a fantastic job of keeping glare at bay. You barely see any kind of reflections, even in a brightly lit room with ring lights and lamps pointed directly at the screen, preventing possible distractions in a tournament setting.

I did note that the matte texture makes it prone to smudging and quite hard to clean, though, which might be a little frustrating if you accidentally touch the panel while setting up.

Like its predecessor, the Inzone M10S II is packed with handy esports features like a dedicated 24.5-inch display mode, the ability to set up on-screen timers and crosshairs, or an option to display a frame rate counter to check your performance.

They’re all accessible via the monitor’s options menu, or the easy-to-use Inzone Hub software. The software even lets you import and export your setup, meaning you can take your at-home profile to a competition and replicate the same settings every time.

As this is a Sony product, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that it also has a dedicated PlayStation 5 mode, which is activated automatically when the system is plugged in and optimizes the picture for console play.

It’s all brought together by a market-leading stand. The base included with the original Sony Inzone M10S is one of the best I’ve ever used, with a low-profile disc-shaped base that fits underneath your keyboard, plenty of vertical adjustment, and a full 360 degrees of rotation. The version that comes with the Inzone M10S is even better, benefiting from an additional few degrees of tilt to ensure a comfortable viewing experience no matter how you’re seated.

Sony Inzone M10S II: Price and availability

• Costs $1,099.99 / £1,199 / roughly AU$2,300
• Same price that the original M10S launched at
• The older model is now cheaper, though

The Sony Inzone M10S II is far from cheap, but it’s not really competing with most other gaming monitors. You can easily find capable 4K screens for far less than this price, such as the Gigabyte M32UC, which is going to be a better fit for those seeking to play cinematic games like Horizon Forbidden West or The Last of Us Part 1 on PC or console.

The Inzone M10S II is instead positioned as an alternative to models offered by dedicated esports brands such as BenQ Zowie. The Zowie XL2586X+ is a good point of comparison, as it’s very similarly priced at roughly $1,000 / £1,150 / AU$1,799. That model features a 600Hz 1080p TN panel designed for the best possible motion clarity. While technically faster, you lose out on the higher-resolution picture, more vibrant OLED colors, and stylish design of the M10S II.

If you’re looking at the Inzone M10S II, then the original Sony Inzone M10S, which is still sold alongside this newer model, is also a viable alternative. The M10S is now easy to find around $900 / £990 / roughly AU$1,600, so it comes in a decent chunk cheaper — though you do lose the spec upgrades.

Sony Inzone M10S II: Specs

Sony Inzone M10S II: Design and features

• Sleek and attractive
• Brilliant included stand
• Wealth of ports

The design of the Sony Inzone M10S II hasn’t changed that much from the original M10S — but that’s certainly not a bad thing. This is a sleek and attractive-looking monitor that comes bundled with a fantastic stand. Its base is a low-profile, 4 mm thin metal disk that fits comfortably underneath a keyboard and connects to a robust stand that keeps the monitor impressively stable.

You get the same full 360-degree rotation too, so you can freely show your screen to teammates in a match. The large power button and the thumbstick used to edit settings are still as intuitive and easy to use as before, and it retains smart design features like a power indicator LED that’s set off to the side so that it doesn’t shine in your eyes as you play.

The ports are identical to the original M10S as well: DisplayPort, two HDMI 2.1 ports, an upstream USB Type-C alongside two downstream USB Type-A ports for peripherals, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a single USB Type-A port reserved for software updates (accomplished with a USB stick). Its major software features are also unchanged, so you still get support for Nvidia G-Sync, HDR, and a suite of visual modes including an FPS Pro+ mode developed in collaboration with esports team Fnatic.

This isn’t the best looking aesthetically, but it makes it far easier to see key visual cues like the red dots that indicate rival players in a match of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 or even obscured enemies in Valorant.

In terms of what’s actually new, it’s a subtle distinction, but the M10S II benefits from a wider -5 to 35 degree tilt range (its predecessor tilted at -5 to 25 degrees), which allows for even more flexibility in your seating position (the monitor also supports a 100 x 100 mm VESA mount, if you would prefer to use a third-party arm).

The Inzone M10S II is also coated with a new ‘Super Anti-glare Film’. It’s incredibly effective, and means you can play unimpeded with a literal torch pointed at the display. The matte texture does make it very prone to picking up smudges, though.

Sony Inzone M10S II: Performance

• 540Hz refresh rate is incredibly smooth
• Beautiful, vibrant colors and strong brightness
• Perfect for competitive games

The Sony Inzone M10S II looks pretty dim and unimpressive out of the box. The culprit? The power-saving mode is on by default. Once you turn that off and crank the brightness up to about 80%, the vibrant OLED colors are absolutely lush and look gorgeous. The sRGB profile is a good choice if you want color accuracy, and is usually my preference when using monitors, but I found the slightly poppier appearance of the standard preset very appealing.

The enhanced brightness of this model is immediately noticeable compared to the original M10s and, along with the effective anti-glare coating, ensures that the picture remains visible in even harsh lighting conditions like direct sunlight or with the display positioned next to a desk lamp.

In games, the performance is simply perfect. The 540Hz refresh rate is beautifully smooth, and motion is impressively clear. It elevates titles like Counter-Strike 2, where the enhanced smoothness genuinely helps with target tracking. The 0.02ms GtG response time certainly helps everything feel snappy, and sits among the fastest on the market.

Although my Nvidia RTX 4080 Ti-powered rig didn’t break a sweat achieving a stable 540fps frame rate at 1440p, you can comfortably lower the resolution to 1080p and maintain a decent level of picture quality — especially in the dedicated 23.5-inch display mode. Things feel even better if you take advantage of the dual-mode feature and crank it up even further to 720Hz at 720p, though this does come at a noticeable cost to picture quality.

Competitive first-person shooter titles are what this monitor was made for, but that doesn’t mean that it delivers poor performance in other genres. The grim world of Warhammer: 40,000 Space Marine 2 looked absolutely gorgeous with expressive colors and strong contrast, while Forza Horizon 6 benefitted hugely from the smoothness of VRR.

Even if I wouldn’t recommend buying the Inzone M10S II exclusively to play those kinds of games when cheaper 4K options are available, it’s good to know that you will still be able to enjoy a wide range of titles if you’re an aspiring esports player who picks one up for both practice sessions and home use.

Should you buy the Sony Inzone M10S II?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

Here’s how the Sony Inzone M10S II stacks up against the original model, plus a 4K alternative for those who want something for general use.

How I tested the Sony Inzone M10S II

• Tested for over two weeks
• Used as primary display
• Evaluated with a wide range of games

I tested the Sony Inzone M10S II for more than two weeks, using it as my primary monitor for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. Throughout my time with it, I tested a wide range of titles, ranging from esports favorites Counter-Strike 2, Rocket League, Fortnite, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege to popular shooters such as Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

I also tried a selection of more traditional games, such as Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Stellar Blade, to elevate its more general performance. During my time with the monitor, I endeavored to test each of its available features using both the built-in settings options and the compatible Inzone Hub software.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed August 2026

• Capcom doesn't think it will be impacted by the physical game market's decline
• The Resident Evil publisher says "approximately 90% of our unit sales are digital" and it doesn't "anticipate a significant impact at this time"
• Sony recently announced plans to end the production of game discs

Capcom has revealed that 90% of its unit sales are digital, so it's unlikely to be significantly impacted by the steady decline of the physical game market.

Things are not looking great for physical media. We recently learned that Sony plans to end physical disc production by January 2028, a decision that has driven a huge wedge between it and the PlayStation fanbase.

Organizations like the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) have also condemned the plan, calling it "a triumph of corporate convenience over consumer choice" and said that "the industry should be embracing every legitimate way consumers want to buy games, not narrowing their choices."

"Digital distribution has transformed gaming and is hugely popular, but it should complement physical formats, not replace them," CEO Kim Bayley said. "Consumers deserve the freedom to choose how they buy their entertainment. Removing discs doesn’t represent progress – it simply removes choice. That’s bad for gamers, bad for retailers and ultimately bad for the long-term health and preservation of our games industry."

With Sony seemingly steadfast in its decision despite the backlash, there's also speculation that the PS6 could be an all-digital console. Xbox is also reportedly working on a disc-to-digital feature, which would allow players to digitize their existing physical Xbox game library, and it all seems to be pointing towards a future where digital will reign over physical media; analysts also determine that the $7.2 billion second-hand video game market could be in danger as a result of Sony's decision.

While some game companies are willing to fight to keep physical games alive, others such as Capcom don't necessarily see it as a negative for the company, for now.

During its latest investor Q&A (via IGN), the Resident Evil publisher responded to a query about whether it would be impacted by these recent developments to the physical game market.

"Approximately 90% of our unit sales are digital," Capcom said. "We do not anticipate a significant impact at this time."

In its Q1 financial results, the publisher also revealed that Resident Evil Requiem has now sold over eight million units, noting that the series continues to "increase in popularity with a broad, global audience while sales of the previous titles in the series also grew steadily due to pricing initiatives." However, it's unclear what the divide is between digital and physical sales.

Elsewhere, Sony is reportedly notifying consumers of its decision to end physical disc production in less than two years, with new labels on PS5 consoles.

• Sony has reportedly started putting labels on PS5 boxes, informing buyers of its plan to end physical disc production
• The label allegedly features an "important notice" for consumers
• Sony's plan comes into effect in January 2028

Sony is reportedly notifying consumers of its decision to end physical disc production in less than two years, with new labels on PS5 consoles.

As VGC reports, X user and content creator Behind the Games posted a photo of what they claim is a new sticker on the back of a PS5 box that alerts buyers of its plan to end the production of game discs by January 2028.

"IMPORTANT NOTICE: From Jan. 2028, newly released games on PlayStation will be available for purchase on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital format only," the message allegedly reads. "Discs for games released before Jan. 2028 can continue to be played on this console."

Behind the Games added that the photo is not theirs but from a "trusted source," but it's important to mention that the label hasn't been verified just yet.

Sony shared its plan last month and received overwhelming backlash from PlayStation fans. Organizations like the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) have also condemned the plan, calling it "a triumph of corporate convenience over consumer choice."

After remaining silent against the pushback for weeks, Sony CFO Lin Tao addressed the situation during the company's Q1 2026 earnings announcement, confirming that it is "cautiously" moving forward with its decision (via IGN).

"There are various reasons we made this decision, the biggest being that digitalisation of contents overall has been progressing, that’s the big factor. It’s not just for PlayStation, but for all kinds of content, digitalisation is progressing," Tao said.

"And so, when we think about the future, we put in a lot of thought and time, and we cautiously considered this, and we came to this conclusion, and we’re going to cautiously move this forward."

• Audeze is "deeply involved" with the creation of future PlayStation audio tech
• Peter James, marketing director at Audeze, says there are products in "various stages of development"
• He adds that it's Audeze's goal to bring gamers "better sound"

Premier audio brand Audeze is growing its partnership with Sony and is currently "deeply involved" with the development of future PlayStation audio hardware.

Sony acquired Audeze, a leading audio technology brand and pioneer of high-end gaming headphones, in 2023 to continue its focus on innovation in PlayStation audio. Audeze still operates independently and continues to develop multi-platform products, while also benefiting from access to the PlayStation ecosystem.

Speaking to TechRadar Gaming Managing Editor, Rob Dwiar, during a visit to its California HQ, marketing director Peter James called the partnership "unique" considering Audeze still runs as its own brand.

However, Audeze's "primary function within PlayStation is to develop the next generation of PlayStation audio" and to always offer the "best performance" and "the best sound," he went on to say.

"We're more deeply involved with the creation of PlayStation audio products [than ever before], where you could kind of think of us as the audio Skunk Works for PlayStation."

In terms of specific ways of approaching PlayStation audio products' development, James said, "acoustically speaking, we are developing the sound of all future PlayStation audio products," while he also revealed that there are products that have yet to be released and are in "various stages of development."

The marketing director described how Audeze aims to bring the audio quality of planar magnetic drivers to a wider range of people, and being part of Sony and PlayStation can boost that enormously. "[We're] bringing people to better sound, who in many cases wouldn't know what planar magnetic technology is, [and] wouldn't know why it sounds better."

"They're going to buy [an official headset] because it's a PlayStation headset, but now they're getting an elevated audio experience, and potentially, once they become aware of it, chasing down even more elevated experiences," James said.

"The more people get those [drivers], the more that raises their expectation of the next headphone they buy", he went on to say.

He added that the path ahead is going to make Audeze hardware and the tech more "more ubiquitous" and more accessible: "Previously, the most accessible planar gaming headset was $299, and then we went with Sony and made it $149 [with the Pulse Elite headset], so it's slowly pushing its way down to be much more accessible."

And with Audeze adding another planar magnetic gaming headset to the market in its Audeze Maxwell 2 ANC, as well as being part of every PlayStation audio product henceforth, the future is looking bright and full of premium audio for gamers.

I've been an avid PC gamer since the early 1990s. My first computer, bought specifically to play Star Wars: X-Wing, was a plucky 486DX running at 33MHz (cutting-edge at the time — well, only behind the 486DX2, but that was too pricey). I have fond memories of playing Doom on the office LAN and getting addicted to Quake when online gaming began (thanks to QuakeWorld, which made dial-up modem play viable as opposed to an utter lag-fest).

I could ramble on with nostalgic gaming recollections, but the point is I played Quake obsessively — to a high competitive level in a clan — then I lived and breathed EverQuest for several years, and down the line, I was totally lost in World of Warcraft for another few years, and so on.

I've always been a PC gamer, through and through — I did swear off MMORPGs, mind, as I can't be trusted not to lose large chunks of my life to them. From time-to-time, I've owned a console too, but it's always been by backup, second-string gaming machine, used sparingly.

Not anymore, though. My PC is now used just for work, and I haven't played a game on it for a year or so.

I am now, officially, a PS5 gamer. A console is my main gaming machine for the first time in my life. So, how did that happen?

A vow revoked and a lesson learned

If you happen to have read my past articles, you may recall that at the end of 2024, I vowed I wasn't going to buy a PS5 Pro last year. My masterplan was to avoid purchasing a new console, and use my gaming PC on the main TV in the living room for couch co-op sessions with my wife instead, while still being able to game in the study with my computer if I wanted.

Then came Black Friday in November of 2025, and I did a complete 180. I pulled the trigger on a good deal on a PS5 Pro bundle.

What changed during the course of 2025? Firstly, I realized that running cables from a PC in the study through to the living room TV is more of a hassle than I'd anticipated. Getting everything set up at the end of each week, ahead of my weekend gaming sessions, quickly became tiresome.

Moreover, I found my long HDMI cable wasn't reliable enough. The picture on my Sony OLED TV kept flickering, which was maddening, frankly. And for no apparent reason, too — sometimes it'd happen, sometimes it wouldn't. I never found out why. I also had occasional issues with my game controllers (typical PC hardware gremlins that were perfectly resolvable, but still a pain).

On top of that, having held off on buying a GPU upgrade for my PC — my plan for the money I would've spent on a PS5 (and did eventually spend on the console) — I was put off by issues around the RTX 5070 when it arrived. This was the graphics card I really had my eye on, but it was a disappointing incarnation in terms of its performance upgrade (and that 12GB of VRAM). The initial above-MSRP price only rubbed salt into these wounds.

The prices of AMD's rival GPUs were off-putting, too, in the early days of RDNA 4 — although that did change, and I came close to buying an RX 9070 XT when pricing finally settled down.

However, at that point, it was too late. I was already frustrated with my whole piping-the-PC-from-the-study situation, and by the time that Black Friday PS5 Pro bundle bargain popped up (it really was a great deal), I just couldn't resist.

I absolutely don't regret that decision, nor am I upset about buying a console with the money that was earmarked for upgrading my ailing RTX 2060 Super. That's not to say I don't miss some things about PC gaming, or that I'm not super-annoyed about Sony's latest stunt regarding discs.

I'm going to cover both sides of this gaming coin here. First, I'll tell you why I'm loving my time with the PS5 Pro now, before discussing what I don't like on the Sony side of the fence, and the clear, undeniable strengths of PC gaming.

PlayStation bliss

I did own a PS4 Pro before — as my second-string gaming device, backing up my PC — and it's striking just how much slicker the PS5 Pro is. For one thing, I found my PS4 Pro to be the noisiest console I've ever had, by far. It was noisier than any PC I've owned, and some vacuum cleaners for that matter.

The PS5 Pro is nicely quiet, super-fast to boot up, and more importantly to wake and sleep. This means it's dead easy to fire up the console for a very quick gaming session if I only have 10 minutes to spare and just want to dip into something briefly, or to pause a session (put the console in rest mode) if I need to pop out. It all feels very seamless, and there's not a snaking USB extension cable or HDMI lead in sight.

Visually, everything looks top-notch on my 4K OLED TV, too. Baldur's Gate 3 — yes, I was very late to the RPG — looked nothing short of fantastic, and the PS5 allowed me to play the adventure co-op with my wife in what was the best co-operative gaming experience I've ever had. Being able to dip in and out so easily, as we cooked dinner, then ate, then fed the dog, going back and forth to the living room in-between, was a major boon.

The PS5 has reminded me just how good couch co-op can be, and I've been enjoying indie games like Dysmantle, which has same-screen co-op (like Baldur's Gate 3). We've been playing a bunch of these games — it's the Diablo 4 expansions next, if you're curious (we played the base game on PS4, so I'm keen to see how good the game looks on its successor console).

The PS5 controllers were an unexpected bonus, too. They're so much better than the PS4, and they even fit my wife's smaller hands (she finds many controllers too big and painfully cumbersome, but not the DualSense).

Of course, a clear benefit of the PS5 over the PC is that there's no messing about with GPU drivers. By which I mainly mean poring through Reddit 'megathreads' worrying about whether the latest Game Ready installment is actually going to be a step backwards for my PC, perhaps in terms of performance for a particular game or bugs (or broken features). Windows 11 bugs are another issue, too. (Yes, there can be software glitches on the PlayStation, but nothing like what some PC gamers must endure at times.)

Then there's the RAM crisis. Buying PC components is just getting more and more painful. Obviously RAM and SSD prices are through the roof already, but PC gamers waiting on a GPU upgrade (as I was) are facing unpleasant hikes due to the price of video memory (VRAM). Indeed, the latest rumor from YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed is potential price hikes to the tune of 40% in some cases with Nvidia GeForce GPUs. Add plenty of seasoning with that assertion, of course, but it's clear enough that GPUs are getting pricier due to VRAM increases, especially for graphics cards loaded up with more of this memory (naturally). CPUs are in line to get more expensive, too.

The crisis in general is predicted to intensify as this year rolls on, and 2027 could be worse still — perhaps the worst ever year for the memory industry, alarmingly. With no need to upgrade my desktop, I'm glad to be out of this gloomy environment of spiraling costs. The situation has turned planning PC upgrade paths, which used to be a rather fun, sometimes even exciting, exercise, into a thoroughly depressing experience.

You might now be shouting at your screen about Sony hiking PlayStation prices, too, and that's a fair point. But I won't have to worry about upgrading my console, and it will happily sit in my living room for the next few years, blissfully not needing any new components (while my work PC can carry on happily with its RTX 2060 Super).

Granted, that's just my personal situation, and if you are thinking about buying a Sony console, with the new price of the PS5 Pro, I don't know if I'd recommend pushing for it over the vanilla PS5 now. (I got mine on sale for about 60% of the current lowest retail price). The base PS5 is still a great console, though, and it'll likely make a lot more sense for the average gamer — especially come Black Friday, when with any luck, there'll be some good deals around once again.

PC strong suits

There are a good number of plus points for PC gaming versus consoles, so as promised, I'll examine the other side of the equation here, and pick out what I particularly miss.

There are some notable downsides with console gaming, including that you need to pay for a subscription to access online multiplayer (in the main, although obviously that doesn't include free games like Fortnite). This doesn't bother me personally because I don't really play online anymore — as I said early, it's mostly about local co-op for me these days. But I totally get why having to pay for a monthly plan irks gamers who want to play the latest shooter, strategy epic, or whatever else, online.

What does bother me, though, is the price of the actual games on the PlayStation. One of the major strengths of the PC is that games are cheaper than they are on console, from big-name releases (which still command a weighty premium... just not as hefty as on consoles) through to a raft of indie titles, which are often very competitively priced.

Not only this, but you get regular Steam sales where some games get huge discounts (and you can pick up older titles in particular for a song), or value-crammed GOG bundles, and also the likes of Epic giving away some compelling offerings for free. You don't get any of this on the PlayStation, and Sony's store does seem to like to charge a lot, even for older titles. For me, this is probably the biggest drawback with shifting over to being a PS5 gamer.

A recent development compounded the situation, too, when we learned that Sony is doing away with physical discs for the PlayStation. I was already aware of the situation with the price of PlayStation games, of course, which is why when I bought my PS5, I chose a bundle with a disc drive.

That meant I could pick up, for example, the physical disc copy of Split Fiction for 40% less than the digital copy on the PlayStation Store. I can also currently purchase second-hand, older games on disc at a considerable saving. But all these possibilities are heading rapidly out the window when 2028 rolls around, and Sony enacts its plan to push physical media completely aside with the PlayStation.

I won't go into this controversy in depth here – we've covered it extensively elsewhere — but suffice it to say that I'm not happy about the idea at all, and it feels like a cynical and generally anti-consumer practice. And no matter how many gamers sign petitions (here have been a lot) it doesn't seem like Sony is going to backtrack on this one (aside from maybe niche collector's editions or the like, and if we're lucky enough to get those, they will of course cost a fortune).

You could argue that the PC is digital-only already: desktops don't come with disc drives anymore, those days are long gone. But what Sony is doing is quite different, given that PC gaming is an open platform bristling with different stores and options for digital purchases, whereas Sony has the PlayStation ecosystem locked down to its store. With physical media banished, a key choice and avenue for money-saving (don't forget, you can also recoup money by selling on your disc copy of a game) is removed, and Sony has an unhealthy level of control over the whole shooting match.

Okay, so I don't feel like the PlayStation disc drive I bought is useless — it'll be good for a long while yet, and I'll still be able to play older games on it, including my PS4 back catalog, plus I can use it for Blu-rays. Regardless, this Sony decision is a painful kick in the shin.

Finally, another obvious plus point for PC gaming is the variety of mods floating around and customization possibilities in general, which you don't get with a console. The PC is quite simply a more open platform all-round — although in my case, modding isn't something that I'm all that into anyway.

Disc-less Elysium

Let me finish by pointing out the obvious: a lot of this is very subjective. You may have quite different opinions. You might live and breathe mods. You might want games to look out-of-this-world, with visual options cranked to the max (and be able to afford the necessary PC hardware to achieve that). You may never want to play a shooter without a mouse and keyboard (I get that one, but I'm okay with a controller now — and I don't play competitively anymore).

You may never, ever, abandon your gaming PC. They may have to extract it from your cold, hardened claws after rigor mortis has set in, having expired clutching the object you love most in the world, in the hopes somehow taking it with you into the afterlife.

The point is, there are all sorts of pros and cons to be tailored for your own personal take on the gaming PC versus console debate. But for me, I'm really happy with my PS5 and I am looking forward to enjoying my living room, and co-op, gaming experiences for years to come... discs or no discs.

When Sony announced that it would no longer be producing physical PlayStation discs from 2028, the response was not positive, to put it lightly. Yes, PC gaming may now be almost entirely digital, and things have certainly been moving in a similar direction with consoles over the last few years, but ceasing production of physical games entirely? It’s a significant step many didn’t want to happen so soon.

PlayStation fans have been vocal in calling out the negatives of Sony’s decision, specifically what this means for game ownership, preservation, and collectors who enjoy buying physical. The company has been reticent to address the backlash, but the comments section of every blog entry, social media post, or trailer release since the announcement is full of anger, pleas to reverse the decision, and glib remarks at Sony’s expense.

For anyone, like myself, who has enjoyed building a collection of physical games over the years across multiple console generations, it’s devastating news.

And I don’t think Sony’s refusal to address any of the feedback is helping matters. Yes, we’ve seen fan uproar dissipate into nothingness with countless hot-button issues in a matter of days in the past — but the vociferous fans don’t appear to be going away right now.

But I think some companies aren’t letting physical games go anywhere either.

A new challenger approaches

“What we've seen and what I have taken from all of the discourse is that there is an incredible passion for physical games and other physical objects. The digital space can never provide the same kind of satisfaction that people get from a tangible good.”

This is the view of Amanda White, co-founder of iam8bit. After starting out hosting pop culture workshops, the company has since produced countless pieces of video game merch and memorabilia over the past 20 years, as well as vinyl releases for popular soundtracks and physical editions for games across several platforms. Yes, they have standard boxed releases for games on PS5, Xbox, and Switch, but the company truly stands out for its jam-packed and reverential physical collector’s editions.

Scroll through the store now, and you’ll see a copy of Lies of P that comes with a wood-carved and hand-crafted marionette puppet, a Blue Prince bundle that includes printed versions of two memorable picture books from the game, and a The Outer Wilds set featuring a traveller’s bag and a replica of Chert’s bandana.

If you’ve played and are a fan of any of those games, you’ll immediately understand the connection between the extras that are included and the game itself, and why people are willing to part with their cash to own something that they can add to a collection, display at home, or carry around with them.

“We started to realise that there was something that people saw as incredibly valuable in these tangible goods,” Amanda explains of the company’s origins. “These unique tangible goods held memories for them that related to these community experiences they were having.

“So, we want to put in the extraordinary effort required to get the gasps of delight when something lands in someone's mailbox and they open it and experience it for the first time.”

Let's get physical

It’s the same fan passion that drives Limited Run Games: a similar outfit that’s published over 1,000 physical and digital game releases since its inception in 2015. Its motto, ‘Forever Physical’, defines the exact mindset of the PlayStation fans who are disappointed with Sony’s pivot to a fully digital future and what’s lost by moving in this direction.

“I think you're losing a key part of the experience, right?” suggests Brendan Madigan, CFO and General Manager at Limited Run. “Because, obviously, the actual media is a key part of that, and I think that's where we, at Limited Run, have a responsibility to our fans to innovate and to improve the experience.”

“I think where our fans have been clear in what they want is that they want collectible products that hold value, and they want the product to be an experience,” he continues. “I’ve always viewed our product as different from a retail offering anyway, because it's highly collectable, it’s very curated, with tonnes of added features and pack-ins to it. The delivery mechanism will always change…but nothing changes about the core experience that the collector wants to have.”

It comes down to the fact that the physical offering from the traditional industry has only grown more sparse over the years. Open a PS5 or Nintendo Switch game box now and you’re more often than not presented with the sad sight of a lonely disc or tiny cartridge set into an empty expanse of plastic. You’re lucky if you get a quick start guide, or a sheet of paper with a DLC code. A full manual? You must be joking.

Similar to iam8bit, the store pages of Limited Run are filled with physical game releases that span the entire range of consoles and generations — from bulky NES cartridges to the slim cases of Nintendo Switch titles.

The products that stand out most, again, are the most recent limited edition launches, with games like Tomb Raider, Silent Hill, and Star Wars Zero Company in beautiful presentation boxes that are filled with soundtrack CDs, trinkets, posters, and other unique extras relevant to the game or its universe.

Sales figures discussed by analysts might paint a grim picture for physical releases, but iam8bit and Limited Run both emphasize just how quickly some of their releases sell out — and how even restocks of older products that were brought back by fan demand are scooped up in no time. The audience and the demand do not appear to be shrinking from their perspective.

Digital is inevitable, but there is hope

As for fans signing petitions trying to convince Sony to reverse its decision, Limited Run’s Chief Operating Officer, Nic Ashford, is unfortunately not hopeful for the outcome they're seeking, but does see what they're standing for as an opportunity.

“Look at the numbers; they're not going to change, they're not going to go back. They can't afford to and it doesn't make sense. But that doesn't mean a company like Limited Run couldn't come in and say, look, we certainly know that 350,000 people want you to keep this going, and it could go up. How about working with us to come up with a solution that works?

“We've got to find the right solution for the number of people who are out there in the minority who still buy physical product,” says Nic. “Some might say, outside the industry, that’s a somewhat flawed business model. But, in fact, it isn't, because those people who seek that type of product will always seek that product out.”

He likens it to this wider push, primarily from younger generations, who want to reconnect to the physical world in our increasing digital age. In the same way that 4K Blu-ray, CDs, and, of course, vinyl, are all in various states of resurgence, it seemed inevitable that video games would also be swept up in this growing demand for and appreciation of physical goods.

“We have, over the last couple of years, set this company up in preparation for this moment,” continues Nic. “Physical is something that we’re intrinsically involved in, and we've been aware that this was going to be coming for several years — practically over a couple of decades. So, we focused on making things more of an experience for the fans and adding value.

“They are actively going out and seeking a connection with something real, something you can hold, something you can touch, and that you can own. That's encouraging. Today's generation and the next generation of physical buyers are going to be people who have that or grow into that, but they'll have a component of nostalgia in there as well.”

Blowing on the cartridge is here to stay

Nostalgia brings me nicely onto another aspect of why physical games are so important to many — one that grows even more important as gaming and console generations keep moving forward. Preservation.

If you buy a game digitally, then there’s the fear that it could disappear and no longer be accessible at any moment. Sure, Sony isn’t going to turn off PS5 game downloads any time soon, but the PlayStation Store on the PS3 and PS Vita is about to close.

And while the company has promised downloads will be possible “for the foreseeable future,” there’s always the thought in the back of your mind that, eventually, they’ll switch it off for good.

So, being able to scan your shelf or dive into a box and find that old copy of something you’ve been craving to play is clearly a driving factor for many physical game buyers — be it a rare PS1 cult classic like Parasite Eve 2, a slightly dusty but incredibly valuable Conker’s Bad Fur Day N64 cart, or a copy of Pokémon Red on the Game Boy that you last remember playing by the light of streetlamps in the back of a car.

One company whose goal is to preserve classic games and ensure you can play them as authentically as possible is ModRetro.

It started by launching the Game Boy-inspired Chromatic and just recently launched the M64, a modern take on the Nintendo 64 that I found was a terrific way to play that console’s games in 2026.

“We wanted to basically design these exactly with this core intention to preserve the authenticity of the gameplay experience,” explains ModRetro CEO Torin Herndon. “That's also why we publish games and re-release games, too. In terms of retro games, the collecting of them is a bigger thing than the playing of them, and one of the goals of ModRetro is to make those games playable again and make them accessible again.”

Original Game Boy and Nintendo 64 cartridges are simply slotted into the Chromatic or the M64 as you would with any standard version of the respective console.

And while some modern quality-of-life touches make things easier or smoother compared to the classic consoles, you’re effectively playing the exact same physical game that you may have owned for years or picked up in a second-hand store earlier that day. With a digital-only future upon us, that won’t be possible.

“The thing that's upsetting to people on the surface is this idea of ownership: that if you don't physically own a game where the game is on physical media, it can easily lose support at any moment. It can effectively be taken away from you in some sense,” says Torin in response to the reaction to Sony’s announcement. “And given that you paid AAA prices for some of these games, that is not a super consumer-friendly option.

“Obviously, these companies don't have a choice but to move away from physical media, because the overall business model of these companies is kind of reliant on having moved away from them in the first place. Most of the physical media that you can buy is actually just a key that allows you to unlock the game and download it.

"That’s another thing that I think is interesting, maybe more interesting even than ownership, is that back in the day these games were baked onto physical media and were more reliably baked before you bought it.”

Overcoming tech challenges

That’s less of an issue when we’re discussing the Game Boy and Nintendo 64 games that ModRetro is focused on, but there will come a point when these same conversations will be happening about more modern games that are reliant on day-one updates and DLC.

The topic is big enough for a different discussion entirely, but it’s a challenge that companies like iam8bit and Limited Run Games also need to be aware of with physical media in the modern era.

Jon Gibson, co-founder of iam8bit, responds to this by saying: “We've been on the side of positivity always, and we're looking at this from a perspective of, OK, you can't change what you can't change. But how can we pivot to embrace what we do so well and to give fans things that they will enjoy and cherish and love in that physical form?

“We hope that 20 years from now, 30 years from now, 50 years from now, people are going to find a copy of a game, or a record, or a CD that we minted that they had never heard of and they give it a shot. They pop it into their console, or they put it on the record player. That's really exciting to think about that we helped to give that thing staying power, whereas, otherwise, it might be deleted digitally when a licence expires.”

That optimism is echoed by Amanda. “As John said, we're going to lean into this aspect of what we already do and have been doing for 20 years, and we'll continue to do it. If that means we need to pivot a little bit so that we're making goods that are sitting beside PlayStation products, rather than direct physical PlayStation games, then we'll do that. We’ll still do our best to make those fans happy and build a robust experience around the IP they love.”

What’s clear speaking to iam8bit, Limited Run Games, and ModRetro is that the passion for games is there in abundance, as is the drive to provide their fans of today and in the future with ways to experience and enjoy the games they love in a physical form, not just as the ones and zeros they’re made from.

In 2025, Hisense introduced RGB mini-LED to the market and since then, most TV brands have thrown their hat into the RGB TV ring. TCL, Samsung, LG and Sony are major names who have adopted the new technology, which was dubbed as being a potential ‘OLED killer’, thanks to boasting higher brightness and bolder colors, and claiming to deliver black tones to rival the best OLED TVs.

One of those new TVs has just entered our lab: the Sony Bravia 7 II. The more affordable model of Sony’s RGB TVs, sitting below the flagship Sony Bravia 9 II, the Bravia 7 II is priced fairly similarly to rival mid-range OLEDs. So, I decided to see how the Bravia 7 II would fare against the five-star LG C6, one of the best TVs I’ve tested in 2026 so far.

For these tests, both TVs were set to their respective, out-of-the-box Filmmaker Modes. For the Bravia 7 II, this was called Professional in SDR/HDR, and Dolby Vision Dark when displaying Dolby Vision content. On the LG C6, it's just the Filmmaker Mode.

Colors

Starting with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, both the Bravia 7 II and C6 demonstrated excellent color reproduction. In the opening scenes, the Lumas’ colors are richer and deeper on the C6, whereas they were brighter on the Bravia 7 II, which worked well for highlights on screen such as when Rosalina uses her wand.

While most colors were a bit punchier on the C6, I did find that yellows and golds actually appeared more vibrant and eye-catching on the Bravia 7 II, shown by the light from the fire reflecting in Rosalina’s hair and face.

Later scenes showed that the C6 had much bolder reds, shown in Mario’s hat and overalls. The C6’s colors also looked more accurate for the most part to me, though during an early scene where Mario and Luigi ride through the desert, I was drawn to the Bravia 7 II’s warmer color tone, with the desert sand looking more true-to-life on the Bravia 7 II, whereas it looked too red on the C6.

There was no denying though the C6’s color handling allowed for more texture and saturation within them, which worked well for this animation.

Moving to a movie with some real-life elements, Speed Racer, both TVs did a great job reproducing the movie’s over-saturated, cartoonish color profile. The ’60s-inspired, often-garish color of people’s outfits and the decor of the Racer family home really popped on both screens. S

imilar to Mario Galaxy, the C6 demonstrated deeper, bolder colors, while the Bravia 7 II showed brighter colors. In the scene in the park where Speed first meets Trixie when they’re both children, the red of Trixie’s dress is punchier on the C6, but the green grass is more vivid on the Bravia 7 II.

In some instances, the Bravia 7 II’s colors did look a little washed out, bordering on too-pale, which was exaggerated by comparing it directly to the C6’s color depth. Reds appeared slightly orange on the Bravia 7 II compared to the C6, a similar story to what happened when I compared the Samsung S95/S99H with the G6, with the former showing orange-tinted reds.

Still, color reproduction is one of the selling points for RGB TVs, and while I felt that the Hisense UR8 (that company's own more affordable RGB mini-LED TV) didn’t stack up that well for color against the Samsung QN80H standard mini-LED when I tested the UR8 and QN80H side-by-side, the Bravia 7 II is putting up a solid fight against the LG C6 OLED (which is a superior TV to the QN80H).

Contrast/dark room viewing

The Batman is something of a torture test for TVs due to its low brightness, which means dark tones can look inaccurate. While OLEDs do a better job displaying it generally, recent models such as the LG G6 have over-brightened the dark tones at times — but the C6 has always handled it well, so it's a great test against the Bravia 7 II.

Watching scenes from the Batcave early in the movie, both TVs demonstrated strong contrast with a great balance between light and dark tones. The C6 had a higher perceived contrast as its black tones were much deeper, thanks to OLED’s pixel-dimming abilities, which meant the dark surroundings that contrasted with the overhead lights and lights from Bruce’s equipment create a higher dynamic range.

Still, the Bravia 7 II demonstrated strong backlight control, better than almost any standard mini-LED TVs I’ve tested this movie on. I also praised the Hisense UR8 for this, so it certainly looks like RGB TVs have unlocked better contrast and dark area control for LED TVs.

In the subway fight scene, the C6 once again proved to have the better black tones, accurately capturing the gloomy tone of the film. However, on the Bravia 7 II, more details such as Batman’s armor and the texture of the back wall were legible, thanks to showing them in slightly higher brightness (more on that in a while), compared to the C6.

The C6 itself showed the occasional sign of black crush compared to the Bravia 7 II. For out and out contrast though, I preferred the C6’s look, but the Bravia II was impressive.

Watching in a dark room, the C6 has the benefit of no backlight, meaning there was no ‘cloud’ effect, where a backlight is obvious over a dark scene. While the Bravia 7 II did show the odd moment of clouding, again it showed excellent backlight control compared to the competition.

There was also very little blooming in the scenes I tried; it only became obvious when a bright menu appeared on the bottom of the screen. Even the Bravia 7 II’s viewing angles were solid, not showing anywhere near the level of blooming a standard mini-LED TV would when watched way off-angle.

I decided to try one final black level test, using the scenes of space from Alien: Romulus. As expected, the C6’s black levels were inky and deep, delivering strong contrast against the stars.

Again though, the Bravia 7 II’s black levels were very good for a backlit TV, although there was some graying on occasion.

I did notice more blooming on the Bravia 7 II in this film however, most prominently whenever bright, white text appeared against black backgrounds. Still, the Bravia 7 II fared better with this movie than I thought.

Brightness

I'm about to get into brightness measurements, but there's a caveat. For my testing, I profile a Klein K-10A colorimeter and Jeti Spectral 15VA spectroradiometer for the best accuracy — and for some reason, I could not get the two’s Delta-E results to line up completely when preparing to measure the Bravia 7 II.

The same equipment worked fine with other TVs when I checked it, so it suggests there’s something odd with the 55-inch Bravia 7 II unit I tested, or perhaps with the way the equipment interacts with it.

Before my full review, we’re getting a different, 65-inch unit in, and I will measure it again — however, I'll provide the measurements I took so far for reference, because while the Delta-E wasn't perfect, it wasn't too far off, so they should be instructive. (And the LG C6 measurements have no issues.)

Brightness results for these two TVs are actually quite surprising. In Filmmaker Mode, the C6 registered 1,427 nits of peak HDR brightness in a 10% window, while the Bravia 7 II registered 1,218 nits peak HDR brightness in its equivalent Professional mode. I was surprised to see that the C6’s peak brightness was higher, as I thought an RGB mini-LED would hit much higher numbers than an OLED.

Looking at fullscreen HDR brightness (a 100% window), this is where the real difference lies. The C6 hit 247 nits in Filmmaker Mode, while the Bravia II registered 957 nits in Professional mode. This is a huge difference — this is the area where mini-LED in general trump OLEDs, though 957 nits is especially high, even

Seeing how this translates into real-world viewing, it shows mostly in bright scenes or scenes with a lot of white. Watching snow scenes from the Spears & Munsil demo footage, a shot of some horses in heavy snowfall is significantly brighter on the Bravia 7 II compared to the C6, giving it a more realistic look.

Another shot of a cliffside during the daytime again looks much brighter on the Bravia 7 II compared to the C6. As the cliff takes up a large portion of the image, the Bravia 7 II, which is brighter in measured areas like 50%, 75% and 100% compared to the C6, means the image looks brighter overall on the Bravia 7 II.

In scenes from Speed Racer, the C6’s peak brightness means white highlights look glossier, such as on the shell of the Mach 5, and colors have more punch in highlight areas, such as the red M on Speed’s helmet. But as the Bravia 7 II has higher fullscreen brightness, the picture does look brighter overall on the Bravia 7 II.

Finally, using a scene in the white-sanded desert from Lawrence of Arabia, this is one movie where the C6 and Bravia 7 II are much closer in brightness in real-world movies. As Lawrence rests on a rock, the sands behind him look punchier on the C6. His metallic watch had slightly more pop too, although this was minimal.

When the sands take up more of the screen, as a stranger approaches Lawrence and his guide, the C6 once again had higher perceived brightness for me.

In this instance, it seems to be related to both TVs color profiles. The Bravia 7 II’s warmer color tone, giving it the brown/orange tint you expect from this type of picture mode, blends more with the desert, whereas the C6’s red tone gives the desert a little more pop.

In terms of bright-room viewing, where you're contending with reflections, the Bravia 7 II is better overall, although the C6 does handle brighter scenes well, such as the ones from Lawrence of Arabia.

With darker movies, the Bravia 7 II is the better option, but it is still prone to mirror-like reflections (the Bravia 7 II doesn’t have the same anti-glare screen as the step-up Bravia 9 II). However, they weren’t as noticeable as the mirror-like reflections from the C6’s even glossier screen.

A step forward, but not quite there yet

Whenever I’ve compared standard mini-LED and OLED, OLED has often come out on top, thanks to its richer black tones and contrast, more refined image and deeper, bolder colors. RGB has been touted as the latest big rival to OLED, and the Bravia 7 II gives the C6 OLED a really good fight.

When smaller RGB TVs first joined the market this year, with the tech itself only arriving in 2025, I thought prices would be inflated. While the C6 is the better priced TV right now, with a 55-inch model costing $1,499 / £1,499 / AU$2,995, a Bravia 7 II isn’t priced too differently, with a 55-inch model costing $1,799 / £1,799 / AU$2,995. (Though LG TVs tend to get more aggressive discounts than Sony TVs, so LG might retain the edge over time.)

For now, the C6 is still the TV I recommend between these two, because it offers the crisper look, bolder colors and more dynamic contrast I’m looking for, as well as a cheaper price. But, there’s a lot to like about the Bravia 7 II and if this is a sign of what’s in store for RGB TVs as the tech develops, OLED will need to watch its back.

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Gaming is edging closer towards a divisive new normal, with Sony set to stop releasing physical game discs for PlayStation consoles in 2028, and Rockstar Games announcing that physical copies of Grand Theft Auto 6 will come with a download code in the box, rather than a disc.

Unsurprisingly, gamers attached to their physical media aren’t happy with either development, and the backlash online has been fierce, with PlayStation’s social media posts being met with furious demands for Sony to reverse course.

Sony’s plans, and the fact that Microsoft is seemingly set to follow suit, also mean GTA 6, one of the most anticipated games of all-time, likely won’t ever be available as a physical copy.

I spoke with Katarzyna Jakubiec, the chief business officer at G2A, an online marketplace that provides digital game keys. She told me that interest in PlayStation Store gift cards was already at record levels on the site before Sony’s and Rockstar's announcements, and GTA 6 pre-order openings have only further highlighted that trend.

G2A has become an increasingly popular way for players to save big on purchases as one of the few options for cheaper digital games. However, Jakubiec makes it clear that both physical and digital formats are pivotal in gaming.

"GTA 6 pre-orders have reinforced a trend we were already seeing rather than changing the market overnight," Jakubiec said. "During the pre-sale period, PlayStation gift card purchases on G2A reached record levels and continue to grow as anticipation for the launch builds, showing that many players are planning their purchases well ahead of release rather than waiting until launch day.

"While more players are embracing digital formats for the flexibility and convenience they offer, it's equally clear that physical copies continue to mean a great deal to many gamers, whether that's because of ownership, collection, or simply the experience of buying a physical game.

"We don't see this as an either-or conversation, and in an ideal world, people should have the choice to buy games in the format that suits them best. Physical and digital both have an important place within gaming, and different people will always have different preferences."

Unfortunately, that's not how Sony sees it; in fact, Sony's stance aligns with the idea that more consumers are purchasing more games digitally, as it makes the controversial decision to end game discs based on 'shifting trends in consumer preference', suggesting that physical game copies are becoming obsolete.

However, the reaction online and from key game industry figures like Dan Houser (Rockstar Games co-founder), who is no longer working at the game studio, indicate that gamers aren't, and frankly, never will be, done with physical game copies — and Jakubiec believes it's why figureheads within the industry need to adhere to players' different preferences.

"The reaction has been just as telling as the decision itself," she adds. "It highlights how passionate and diverse the gaming community is, and why major industry decisions need to consider the different ways people choose to buy, own, and experience their games.

She says that whether Sony decides to reconsider its plans is "ultimately for them to determine" — which seems unlikely, given that Sony has so far refused to reverse its decision, and shows no sign of changing its mind.

Jakubiec adds, "Whatever direction the industry takes, moments like this reinforce the need to listen to players and communicate those decisions clearly."

• Nearly 400 4K Blu-ray users shared info about player problems
• There's a huge gap between the best and worst in the poll
• Panasonic will be happy; Sony not so much

One of the things I like best about Reddit is the way people share their experiences of particular products: whether it's a kitchen knife, a portable AC or a Gibson guitar I know I'll be able to find sage advice on what to buy and what to watch out for. And now the good people of r/hometheater have come together to talk about the best 4K Blu-ray players and their reliability.

The poll was carried out by r/hometheater poster "requieminadream" and generated nearly 400 responses — almost double the number of previous poll respondents — from r/4KBluray, r/Bluray, r/PhysicalMediaMatters, the AVS Forums, and the Blu-ray.com forums. And there are some very clear differences between different firms' Blu-ray devices.

Requieminadream very kindly summarized the results in a sentence: "The Sony UBP-X700 is still the problem child, the Panasonic DP-UB820 is still champ, and the pricey UB-9000 posted the cleanest numbers (small sample though)."

But there were some interesting discoveries in the detail too, so it's definitely worth looking at if you're considering a pre-owned 4K Blu-ray player purchase, or just which one seems to make people the happiest long-term.

Which 4K Blu-ray players are the best?

One of the reasons I like Reddit wisdom is because with few exceptions, reviewers can't spend years with the products they test — so the reviews of my car don't know about the software issues that drive me wild and sometimes require a reboot at traffic lights, and the reviews of my router don't know about its tendency to misbehave every few weeks.

It's the same with Blu-ray players: even the most in-depth review won't be able to tell you if a player's likely to pack up in year two or three. (Though one exception is our Panasonic DP-UB820 review, written by our TV Hardware senior writer James Davidson, because he wrote us a fresh review based on combining using it in our test room and having used it daily for several years beforehand.)

But in general, polls like this are a brilliant resource.

By a large margin, the Panasonic DP-UB820 is the community's favored player: 43.4% of respondents have one, and its problem rate was around half that of the Sony UBP-X700. The rate of serious issues was very low, at just 8% — backing up what James had said, when he called it "the workhorse of the 4K Blu-ray player world".

The "problem child" that emerged from this latest poll is the Sony UBP-X700. Of the 103 Sony users, some 77.7% reported some issues over time; recurring and/or serious issues were 23%. The number one complaint is freezing during triple-layer transitions, which is something that has long been discussed on Blu-ray forums.

The poll shows another interesting pattern, which is problems over time. For the Sony, issues became more common over time — but for the Panasonic the pattern was of any failures showing up early, but better long-term reliability.

The other players in the survey came in between the two extremes, but some of the best results were from "other" players including games consoles and more niche Blu-ray products.

Satisfaction with those products was exceptionally high, with the PS5 getting a significantly higher rating than the Xbox. That's all the more striking given the Sony X700's performance: the PS5 is a more premium product and that seems to be reflected in its reliability — alas, we shouldn't expect any more PlayStations to arrive with a disc player.

I should make clear, as the original Redditor did, that in some cases the sample sizes for ownership in these polls is pretty low, so we should take the results with a pinch of salt. However, the Panasonic UB820 and the Sony X700 were the best-represented, and are the two most popular players, so their data is arguably the most useful anyway.

• Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot says Sony's plan to end physical game disc production won't have a major impact on the industry
• Guillemot says there are pros and cons to the decision
• He says, "I think it will not disturb the industry too much"

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot doesn't think Sony's decision to retire the production of physical game discs will have a considerable impact on the industry.

Guillemot's comment comes from an earnings call following the release of its first-quarter 2026-27 sales (via VGC), during which the CEO was asked if Sony's plan to end disc production starting January 2028 could have a positive or negative effect on the future of the games industry.

While many disagree with Sony's decision, and some analysts predict it will endanger the $7.2 billion second-hand game market, Guillemot doesn't believe it will have a major impact on the industry at large.

Bold statements

"What we saw on the PC is that it helped to grow the market," Guillemot said. "There’s also some pressure for the future on the cost of machines, and being able to be only digital will help to have a more accessible machine, I would think.

"As you said, there are pluses and minuses, but I think it will not disturb the industry too much."

Sony announced its plan earlier this month and saw overwhelming backlash from fans. According to Wedbush Securities managing director of strategic planning Michael Pachter, Sony's plan to phase out discs in two years is now a threat to the used game market.

"Realistically, at least one-third of games have been sold historically as used, and the games that were sold also provided currency to the gamer who traded them in as cash to pay for new games," Pachter said. "Brick and mortar game retail is doomed."

Sega president Shuji Utsumi has also addressed the controversy and said that while the digital shift is "crucial," the company still understands the importance of physical media.

Similarly, former Nippon Ichi Software CEO Sohei Niikawa understands the decision "from a purely business perspective" but says physical editions are still "very important" to fans.

"If they’re going to go as far as eliminating physical packages, they may as well eliminate the hardware too," Niikawa said. "A television would be enough. Why would you need the console? If you’re going to get rid of physical games, you may as well go all the way."

• Sega president Shuji Utsumi has addressed Sony's decision to end the production of game discs
• Utsumi says, "We still value the culture of physical media," but "a digital shift is crucial"
• He adds, "It is important to strengthen our digitalisation" in the current market

Sega president Shuji Utsumi has addressed the controversy surrounding Sony's decision to end the production of game discs in 2028, acknowledging the importance of physical media but that the digital shift is "crucial."

In a recent interview with Japanese publication Famitsu (via Eurogamer), Utsumi explained that the digital market needs to be cultivated and Sega believes in bolstering digitalisation.

"When it comes to titles we call 'full games' for consoles and PCs, we believe that a digital shift is crucial," Utsumi said. "Of course, consoles are important, but the proportion of people who play on PCs is steadily increasing. Even in areas where consoles are not widely available, there are many people who say, 'I can play it on PC.'"

He added, "In order to cultivate that market, we believe it is important to strengthen our digitalisation. We tend to think from a physical perspective, so I think we need to be more digitally conscious and become more global."

Utsumi then touched on Sega's hardware history, saying that while it isn't in the console market anymore and now primarily publishes games, the company hasn't forgotten its roots and the importance of physical media.

"We were originally a platform provider, and of course, we still value the culture of physical media," the president said. "Rather than completely abandoning that, we are currently challenging ourselves to shift so that we can think about and act on the important aspects of digital media in parallel."

Sony announced its plan to retire new physical discs earlier this month, explaining that the transition to all-digital games "will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today."

PlayStation fans continue to push back against the decision, but analysts believe the company won't change its mind.

It's also said that the $7.2 billion second-hand video game market could be in danger as a result of Sony's decision, with Wedbush Securities managing director of strategic planning, Michael Pachter, reporting that "Brick and mortar game retail is doomed."

Elsewhere, Former Nippon Ichi Software CEO has objected to the plan, saying that while he understands it "From a purely business perspective," Sony doesn't "understand the feelings of those fans."

"If they’re going to go as far as eliminating physical packages, they may as well eliminate the hardware too," he said. "A television would be enough. Why would you need the console? If you’re going to get rid of physical games, you may as well go all the way."

• Former Nippon Ichi Software CEO Sohei Niikawa has criticized Sony's decision to end the production of game discs
• The Disgaea creator says the company doesn't "understand the feelings" of physical game fans
• He adds, "If they’re going to go as far as eliminating physical packages, they may as well eliminate the hardware too"

Former Nippon Ichi Software CEO and creator of the tactical role-playing video game series Disgaea, Sohei Niikawa, has objected to Sony's plan to end disc production, saying the company might as well eliminate hardware too.

Sony announced its decision earlier this month, calling it a "natural direction" for the company that will come into effect by January 2028. It means that in the future, PlayStation owners won't be able to purchase discs for new games.

Fans have been vocal about their anger at the decision and have called on Sony to change its mind. Even Former PlayStation Worldwide Studios boss Shawn Layden has called the plan to move all-digital "a fairly dramatic decision."

Now, speaking to Noisy Pixel at Anime Expo 2026, Niikawa has also criticized Sony, saying that while he understands the plan "From a purely business perspective," it will hurt PlayStation fans.

"I think physical editions of games are very important," Niikawa said, explaining that fans who buy physical copies can hold a "great deal of value" and memories, and can even be taken to events to be signed by their creators.

"Physical games are important because they can carry that kind of meaning," he said.

"I can understand why the people at Sony would make that decision. However, the executives who decided it have probably never experienced coming to an event like Anime Expo and having someone approach them with a physical game to ask for an autograph.

"I don’t think they understand the feelings of those fans, and they may never have considered what physical editions mean to the people who value them."

He added, "If they’re going to go as far as eliminating physical packages, they may as well eliminate the hardware too. A television would be enough. Why would you need the console? If you’re going to get rid of physical games, you may as well go all the way."

For now, Sony appears firm in its decision, and analysts have determined that it won't change its mind, despite the backlash, arguing that "Digital is just too lucrative," in the current business.

Circana's Mat Piscatella also believes that Sony is taking advantage of the current digital market, and recently reported that only seven PlayStation games have sold more than 100,000 physical units year-to-date in the US.

• Dataintelo reports that the used video game market is worth $7.2 billion
• The firm thinks that Sony's decision to end the production of discs will cause it to decline
• Analysts say the market will "keep shrinking and eventually disappear"

The second-hand video game market could be in danger as a result of Sony's decision to end production of physical discs starting in January 2028.

A new story from CNBC included analysis from market research firm Dataintelo, which reported that the used game market was worth $7.2 billion in 2025 and predicted it could grow to $13.8 billion by 2034.

The figure represents all pre-owned games, console hardware, accessories, and peripherals, but consoles account for 42.3% of revenue, with North America being the biggest part of the market. That's compared to Europe, which captured 28.3% of global second-hand revenue last year.

The company explained that the second-hand game market is fuelled mainly by affordability concerns, an interest in retro gaming, and a "digital-to-physical gaming transition."

With Sony's plan to phase out discs in just two years, there's now a threat to the used game market.

"Realistically, at least one-third of games have been sold historically as used, and the games that were sold also provided currency to the gamer who traded them in as cash to pay for new games," said Wedbush Securities managing director of strategic planning, Michael Pachter. "Brick and mortar game retail is doomed."

However, physical discs and the second-hand market aren't likely to disappear all at once. Kazunori Ito, director of equity research at Morningstar, explained that the market will "keep shrinking and eventually disappear."

"There is an important difference between players accepting that shift because they see value in it, and having it effectively forced on them by taking away the alternative," Ito said.

"Most would prefer to make that transition in their own way and at their own pace, rather than having it driven by the end of physical discs."

In Sony's announcement earlier this month, it called it a "natural direction" for the company, arguing that the transition from physical to digital discs "will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today."

While fans continue to push back against the decision, analysts have determined that the PlayStation company won't change its mind.

"Their current profit margin has been too weak for years now, so they feel like they must act," explained Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Japanese game industry consultancy firm Kantan Games. "From an economic perspective, digital sales just make too much sense especially for platform holders."

A recent report from Circana senior director and video game industry advisor Mat Piscatella also suggested that the digital market is in Sony's favor right now, explaining that only seven PlayStation games "have sold more than 100,000 physical units year-to-date" in the US.

• Senior director and video game industry advisor at Circana, Mat Piscatella, reports only seven PlayStation games have sold more than 100,000 physical units year-to-date in the US
• He says two games "sold more than 10,000 physical units in the US during the week ending July 11, 2026"
• This comes as fans push Sony to reverse its plan to end the production of physical discs

In light of Sony's decision to retire the production of physical game discs, an industry analyst has reported that physical PlayStation games aren't selling too well in the United States.

Last week, angry PlayStation fans descended on the comment section of the latest Marvel's Wolverine trailer, another effort to push Sony to backtrack on its plan to end the production of physical discs starting January 2028.

As of writing, the video has over 12,600 comments, with the vast majority from fans sharing their thoughts on the decision.

Now, in response to a news story about the situation, Circana senior director and video game industry advisor Mat Piscatella has shared some interesting stats about the state of physical game sales in the US.

Writing on Bluesky, Piscatella said, "Two PlayStation video games sold more than 10,000 physical units in the US during the week ending July 11, 2026.

"Seven have sold more than 100,000 physical units year-to-date." He also clarified later that the figures didn't refer just to first-party PlayStation games, but "total PlayStation. All games, all publishers, all PlayStation platforms."

Addressing the fan backlash, the analyst added, "Commenting is cool, use your voice and all that. But commenting is cheap, [I don't know] idk."

Which games those are is unclear, but global estimates shared earlier this month by Alinea Analytics (via GamesRadar) suggest EA Sports FC 26, Resident Evil Requiem, and 007 First Light could be among those seven. It's estimated for Requiem specifically that 27.8% of its 3.5 million copies sold came from physical discs.

Sony has been notably quiet in the face of the backlash, and according to multiple analysts, despite the fan backlash, the PlayStation maker won't reverse its decision because "digital is just too lucrative."

"They of course knew what the online reaction would look like, and they now wait for this storm to pass," said Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Japanese game industry consultancy firm Kantan Games.

"Sony has over 120 million active PlayStation users. Around 50 million people subscribe to PlayStation Plus. As a thought experiment, let's say 500,000 cancel in protest, that would be just 1% of that business gone — of course not enough to Sony to start rethinking. Digital is just too lucrative.

He added, "Their current profit margin has been too weak for years now, so they feel like they must act," Toto added. "From an economic perspective, digital sales just make too much sense especially for platform holders."

• Sleepy Hollow is getting a reboot at Sony, according to reports from Deadline
• Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney is believed to be leading the cast
• Lindsey Anderson Beer will direct the new movie, which has been dubbed as "an erotic retelling of the Sleepy Hollow story"

A Sleepy Hollow reboot wasn't something I was expecting, but it's happening at Sony according to reports from Deadline.

At the moment, the new movie has just been announced but we do know that it will be an "erotic retelling" of Sleepy Hollow, directed by Pet Semetary: Bloodlines director Lindsey Anderson Beer.

In addition to this, Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney will reportedly be leading the cast of the new Sleepy Hollow movie, but further stars have not been announced.

Anderson Beer's new story follows Katrina Van Tassel, who was played by Christina Ricci in the 90s movie. Instead of being the love interest for the protagonist, his time, Tassel will be the hero in a mystery that will feature a "seductive supernatural love triangle."

The story is also said to blend "gothic atmosphere, psychological intrigue, and erotic thriller elements into a contemporary, high-concept reinvention of the classic tale."

Sleepy Hollow is not the first horror movie Sydney Sweeney has starred in, as she had the leading role in the religious horror movie Immaculate in 2024. So it will be interesting to see how she leads an adaptation of an iconic story.

Of course, it isn't a straight adaptation of the Sleepy Hollow novel by Washington Irving. Anderson Beer is publishing a companion novel to go alongside her Sleepy Hollow movie, which is expected to be released in fall 2026.

The horror genre has been booming recently with plenty of hits coming in, like Backrooms and Obsession. This has caused studios to start looking at other ways to expand the horror universe, such as upcoming Creepypasta adaptations like Siren Head.

• A new Marvel's Wolverine trailer has been swarmed by angry PlayStation fans
• Users are sharing their disdain for Sony's decision to end physical disc production
• Many are sharing how glad they are that Wolverine will be available on disc

PlayStation fans angry with Sony's decision to end physical disc production have descended on the latest Marvel's Wolverine to make their thoughts known.

Insomniac Games just released a new cinematic trailer for the upcoming Marvel superhero game titled 'Ain't No Hero' ahead of the game's launch on September 15.

It looks awesome, but if you think fans are having a healthy discussion about how cool the game looks in the comment section, you'd be dead wrong.

As of writing, the video has over 8,000 comments, and the vast majority are from fans who aren't backing down from their efforts to make PlayStation reverse its decision to retire physical discs in 2028.

"You know who isn’t the hero? The killer of physical," reads the top comment, which has over 12,000 likes.

"Wolverine was really getting PHYSICAL in this trailer, he has such a DISCtinct presence," one user said, with another writing, "Wolverine's treasured photograph demonstrates the importance of physical media."

Thankfully, Marvel's Wolverine will be getting a physical copy at launch, so fans won't have to worry about that. The only games that will be affected are titles launching from January 2028 onwards, and fans are letting PlayStation know how they feel about it.

"Can't wait for my DISC copy to come in," one comment reads, followed by numerous more of the same variety, like, "Can't wait for my PHYSICAL COPY," and "Looking forward to getting a PHYSICAL edition."

Since sharing the announcement earlier this month, Sony has been notably quiet in the face of the backlash. To urge the company to reverse its decision, fans have also created a petition, which now has over 326,000 signatures.

According to analysts, despite pushback from fans, the PlayStation maker won't reverse its decision because "digital is just too lucrative."

• GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen says Sony's decision to end physical game production is 'totally irrelevant' to the company
• The statement is supported by both physical and digital games, which only contribute 18% to overall revenue
• Cohen's comments likely won't help gamers in their push to retain physical game discs

The backlash against Sony continues after its controversial choice to stop new physical disc production of PlayStation games from January 2028 and it looks like the US' biggest dedicated video game retailer isn't taking a stand.

In an interview with Bloomberg, GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen dismissed the idea that the company will be impacted by Sony's decision to end physical game copies, stating "it doesn't matter at all," despite ongoing uproar from consumers.

"It mattered in the past; software makes up less than 12% of the business," Cohen said. "Collectibles makes up over half of the business, so it's totally irrelevant."

Frankly, it's a harsh and cold stance, but it isn't exactly incorrect, as Bloomberg highlights that both physical and digital copies of games are only 18% of GameStop's total revenue. The store has mostly transitioned to a focus on collectibles like Pokémon cards, and that's evident the moment you visit its website.

It's no secret that Sony's decision to end disc production in 2028 hasn't gone down well with most consumers, as many feel as though it's a direct threat to game ownership. A digital-only console means games (or other media) can be taken away from gamers at any time, and Sony has done that recently with over 500 purchased movies removed from user libraries.

Essentially, GameStop's reasoning for the end of game discs being irrelevant is similar to Sony's, as Sony highlighted the fact that most gamers are purchasing copies digitally in its announcement.

Despite that, the consensus among consumers is that the elimination of discs is quite unnecessary, only cutting off another option of purchase. It's also worth noting that prices for games on the PlayStation Store won't be as low as they would usually be via second-hand or video game retailers.

Sony has yet to address the matter since the announcement, even with the sheer amount of backlash it's receiving online, and gamers will likely be hoping that statements from CEOs like Cohen won't harm the fight to retain physical game copies.

• Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden says developers need to lead with innovation to justify the increasing cost of consoles
• He says studios are "limiting our reach just because of the games we’re building now"
• While Grand Theft Auto 6 will be a hit, Layden says "there are a lot of people in the world who really don’t care" about it

Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden thinks studios need to start investing in unique games that entice a wider audience to justify the increasing cost of consoles.

The price of hardware has been rising over the past few years. We can blame the rising cost of manufacturing, the shortages driven by AI data centers eating up all the components, or inflation. For whatever reason, the current landscape is a mess, and the next generation is bound to be expensive.

As Sony and Microsoft hike the price of current-gen systems, despite the PS5 and Xbox Series X and Series S being six years old, analysts suggest that the PS6 and next Xbox could cost as much as $1000. It doesn't sound out of the realm of possibility when you consider Valve has just launched the Steam Machine, a console-PC hybrid, for the same cost.

From what little we know about the PS6, we can expect technical improvements over the PS5, which could mean better ray-tracing and higher frame rates. With PlayStation's plan to end physical disc production in 2028, analysts predict that it could also be an all-digital console, sadly.

But would this justify a $1000 price tag? According to Layden, who spoke about the changing industry in an interview with Kotaku, it doesn't, and Sony will need to lead with software innovation to draw in gamers instead.

“I mean really, how much more ray tracing can you put in there?” he said. “And will my eyes actually see 120 frames per second?”

Layden can't say what the PS6 will look like compared to the PS5 since he hasn't worked at Sony since 2019, but if there's a chance the technical gap between the two consoles is too narrow, software is where things need to change.

"I think we’re already kind of limiting our reach just because of the games we’re building now. I mean, variety and range seem to be narrowing," Layden said. "Most games are falling into a standard set of buckets."

He pointed to the genres of games we've been seeing over the years, including zombie apocalypse and space-marine games, action titles with "guys with really long swords and not much armor and dragons."

Layden then brought up GTA 6, and while he acknowledged that the game is going to be a massive hit, some gamers don't care about it.

"So, you see those categories and coming around that, of course, Grand Theft Auto is going to be like an asteroid piercing the atmosphere and hitting the gaming universe with great force and power," he said. "But there are a lot of people in the world who really don’t care about Grand Theft Auto, the non-gaming community."

He continued, explaining, "We talk about how big we are, $220 billion, $250 billion industry, but our social impact is the reverse. Everybody has a favorite song. That’s probably the least revenue-generating entertainment category, music, compared to gaming and film and television. But yet it has the widest impact. And so gaming, it’s huge on the revenue side of things, but it’s a very select group that are doing it.

"We’re getting more money from the same people all the time and not necessarily bringing in new people into the experience. And if these people who aren’t in the gaming experience have already said ‘we don’t care about Call of Duty, we don’t care about Grand Theft Auto, we don’t care about Gran Turismo,’ doing more of those same games is obviously not going to appeal to those people either."

While Layden thinks discoverability is one facet of the issue, the main problem is creativity, and if developers "close ranks" and continue making shooters by appealing to what the "base user" wants, things will be fine, "but we won’t get any bigger. We won’t bring any more people into the tent. And that’s probably bad."

He added, "We need to bring out more games for more people, which means actually you have to have more people making games and in different places and different experiences. I want to find out what games from Uruguay look like and what kind of game designers we have in Bulgaria."

• PlayStation has delayed the launch of the FlexStrike Wireless Fight Stick
• The company says production delays have caused the hardware to be postponed
• The PlayStation 5 peripheral will no longer launch on August 6, but "at a later date"

PlayStation has issued an update on the release of its FlexStrike Wireless Fight Stick, announcing that the hardware has been postponed.

The FlexStrike was originally slated to release on August 6, but now, in an updated PlayStation Blog post, the company has confirmed that "due to unexpected production delays," it "will launch at a later date."

"We’re working to ensure we deliver the best possible experience to our players with FlexStrike, so we’re taking extra time to put the finishing touches on the product," PlayStation said.

"We apologize for this delay and look forward to bringing the FlexStrike experience to the community when it launches."

Pre-orders for the fight stick opened on June 12, but the company confirmed that players can check their order status through PlayStation Direct and will receive communications regarding their order.

"Players who pre-ordered through another retailer should look for updates directly from that retailer or contact them with any questions," it added.

The FlexStrike is a PS5 peripheral and costs $199.99 / £179.99.

TechRadar's senior reviews writer Harry Padoan got the chance to test out the fight stick earlier this year, writing that it "hits the right notes" performance-wise when tested against Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, and is "approachable and straightforward to use," and "offers ultra-low latency in both wired and wireless capacities."

Elsewhere, Sony has announced plans to end physical game disc production. While remaining silent against the backlash, the company recently posted an advertisement for the FlexStrike, which received massive pushback.

• A Steam user has found a way to store games on SSDs with an auto-navigation and auto-start script
• These are effectively physical 'game cartridges' complete with key art
• However, costly SSDs means this is a pricey endeavor (the Steam gamer was lucky enough to pick up used drives on the cheap)

Physical copies of PlayStation games are coming to an end from January 2028, and as the backlash around that continues, a restoration of physical media on PC has been discovered — and it's novel to say the least.

A Steam user on Reddit has managed to store games on 'cheap 2.5-inch' SATA SSDs, effectively acting as old-school 'game cartridges' with key art, and a script that auto-navigates Steam to each game's page. The user also notes that automatically starting games from each drive is possible.

This comes amid a significant uproar from gamers following the revelation of Sony's plan to eradicate physical game discs, supposedly by the time its next PlayStation console arrives. It's a very controversial move that has united gamers across all platforms to fight to retain discs and to ensure game ownership remains intact.

With that said, physical media for PC has been dead for a long while, since a modern desktop PC doesn't come with a disc drive, and there are hardly any publishers selling physical copies for the platform.

With most games only accessible digitally on PC, in theory those titles can be taken away from buyers at any time. The trouble is that consumer-friendly figures like Gabe Newell, who leads Valve, the owner of Steam, won't be in charge forever.

So in the future, under new leadership, it's possible more anti-consumer measures might be introduced, or other aspects of PC gaming that consumers dislike, such as DRM (like Denuvo).

Imagine if this 'game cartridge' system was adopted by PC game publishers? It's a smart idea, and a nice thought, but clearly not a realistic one. For starters, it'd be a prohibitively expensive method of reintroducing physical PC game copies.

Of course, platforms like Epic Games and Steam require users to be logged in and have their app installed to play games, so it's still a long way off true game copy ownership, anyway.

However, this concept would be paired perfectly with GOG, a platform that is DRM-free and doesn't require the launcher to play purchased games — in other words, you fully own purchased games on GOG.

Admittedly, publishers releasing PC game cartridges in the form of SSDs is a pipe dream, especially with the current state of the hardware market, and the RAM crisis, complete with skyrocketing SSD prices.

The idea comes at the wrong time, then, but if the RAM crisis ever settles down, then maybe this is something we'll see more PC hobbyists doing — and perhaps even the odd publisher.

• PS5 user reports being locked out of Ghost of Yotei digital copy for 'half an hour' due to license verification
• License verification isn't new, but this case is important amid Sony's plans to axe physical game copies
• Once physical game copies are gone, access to games on PlayStation will be at Sony's disposal

Sony's plans to push for an all-digital future for games on PlayStation have come under major scrutiny since the announcement, and one case highlights just how dangerous those plans are to game access and ownership.

A Reddit user (in a now-removed post) reported being locked out of the digital copy of Ghost of Yotei on PS5 for half an hour, even after refreshing licenses. When attempting to open the game, the message reads: "Can't use this content. Your licenses are being verified. Try again later."

It's important to note that this type of scenario isn't exactly new; license refresh prompts can occur after a long period, especially when sharing a game with another user. However, this Ghost of Yotei license check example comes amid Sony's ongoing, controversial decision to end the production of physical game discs from January 2028.

Once the supposed digital-only PS6 arrives, this very example of a consumer being locked out of a game can happen at any time. Unlike physical game discs, access to digital PlayStation game copies is at Sony's discretion, and the same will soon apply to all game copies, which essentially means game ownership will be non-existent.

Since there has been no follow-up statement since the disc axe announcement, it seems Sony is waiting for the storm to subside so it can ultimately commit to its digital-only plans, despite pressure from consumers online.

Unlike Microsoft's decision to walk back on its 'always-online' Xbox One plans after backlash in 2013, it may take a tumultuous effort from consumers, game studios, and video game retail stores to make an impact.

It's also quite ironic that Sony, which previously mocked Microsoft for the ability to share physical game copies, is now responsible for eliminating physical game copies. In the same vein as the subscription-based PlayStation Plus, which is a requirement to play games online, if consumers don't continue to push back against digital-only plans, there will be no going back once the PS6 arrives.

• Sony Santa Monica has confirmed God of War Laufey will be available on a physical disc
• The studio's comment come after PlayStation's announcement to retire physical game discs from January 2028
• This means God of War Laufey could release before the end of 2027

Following PlayStation's announcement to retire game discs, Sony Santa Monica has confirmed that God of War Laufey will be available on disc, suggesting the game could launch within the next year.

The studio's comment comes from X, where it shared its schedule for the God of War Laufey panel at San Diego Comic-Con.

In the thread, Sony Santa Monica added, seemingly in response to fans who have been asking for the past few weeks following PlayStation's announcement, that "We can confirm God of War Laufey will be available on disc."

Sony confirmed earlier this month that it would end the production of game discs starting from January 2028. Now that we know Laufey will get a physical disc, it suggests that the game will launch before 2028.

The new God of War entry was announced last month at Summer Game Fest 2026 and is set to star Kratos' wife, Faye. It would be great if the game launched in 2026; however, there are five months left in the year.

The latter half of the year is stacked with upcoming game releases, including GTA 6 in November and Marvel's Wolverine in September, so I find it unlikely that the new Laufey will release any time soon.

Given the studio's comment, it's more likely it will launch before the end of 2027, or, if we stretch it to the last possible moment, January 2028, before physical discs are retired.

Sony has faced overwhelming backlash since sharing its plan, with many fans hoping it will reverse its decision if there's enough support.

A petition has also been created, which now has over 310,000 signatures, urging Sony to back down, but for now, the PlayStation company has remained silent.

• The Entertainment Retailers Association has slammed Sony's decision to kill physical discs
• The UK trade organization says digital games "should complement physical formats, not replace them"
• The ERA says, "Removing discs doesn’t represent progress – it simply removes choice"

UK trade organization, Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), has criticized Sony's decision to end production of physical PlayStation discs.

The gaming company has received overwhelming backlash since announcing its plan to retire physical discs in 2028, and now, as reported by The Game Business, the ERA, which represents most major video game retailers in the UK, including Amazon, Game, Sainsbury’s and HMV, has condemned the plan, calling it "a triumph of corporate convenience over consumer choice."

"Every year, millions of gamers still choose to buy physical copies because they value true ownership," CEO Kim Bayley said in a statement. "A disc can be shared with family, traded in, collected, preserved and, crucially, still played years from now. A download licence often offers none of those freedoms."

Per NielsenIQ and market research firm GfK, The Game Business reports that 45 percent of all physical games sold in the UK in 2025 were for PS4 or PS5, which represents almost half of all physical game revenue during this period, and a majority of sales were made through the post as opposed to in-store pick-ups on release day.

The ERA also said that 25 percent of gamers under 25 use discs and the total UK disc-based games market was valued at over £300 million in 2025, "demonstrating that there remains a substantial and committed audience for boxed games."

"Retailers see this demand every day," Bayley said. "Physical games continue to bring people into shops and give consumers real value through gifting, collecting and resale. The industry should be embracing every legitimate way consumers want to buy games, not narrowing their choices."

The CEO continued: "Digital distribution has transformed gaming and is hugely popular, but it should complement physical formats, not replace them.

“Consumers deserve the freedom to choose how they buy their entertainment. Removing discs doesn’t represent progress – it simply removes choice. That’s bad for gamers, bad for retailers and ultimately bad for the long-term health and preservation of our games industry."

Since its announcement earlier this month, Sony has remained silent in the face of the backlash. Many fans have banded together to urge the company to reverse its decision, including signing a petition that now has over 310,000 signatures.

• One of the original Xbox founders, Laura Fryer, suggests Sony is stripping away game ownership via an all-digital future
• It comes after PlayStation announced physical game discs won't be produced starting from January 2028
• Fryer claims Sony let Rockstar 'take the heat' by announcing a digital-only GTA 6 first

Sony is still under fire after its latest announcement of a future all-digital future for PlayStation games, as physical game copies are due to be axed — and not only are consumers livid, some gaming industry veterans are too.

As reported by Notebookcheck, Laura Fryer, one of the original founding members of Xbox, has recently condemned Sony's announcement ending physical game discs for future PlayStation games, and highlights the threat the move poses to game ownership.

The announcement from Sony has since resulted in major backlash regarding game ownership from thousands online, including a slight pushback (or support for physical media) from indie game developers like Astrolabe Games.

In this case, Fryer hasn't been shy about noting just how dangerous the end of physical game discs will be once 2028 arrives, especially since rumors suggest Microsoft may follow in a similar direction with its next Xbox console.

"Digital is convenient until someone else decides you've had enough, and there are some games and movies where I will never have enough of them," Fryer stated, which is arguably a valid statement since Sony recently removed over 500 purchased movies from users' libraries.

It's worth noting that Rockstar Games recently opened GTA 6 pre-orders, with the announcement that there won't be a physical copy of the game, which Fryer highlights as an important step to Sony's latest plans, stating: "Sony waited for Rockstar to make the first move, take the heat, and now they're going all in to make this the new normal."

Fryer even references Don Mattrick's infamous statement regarding an 'always online' Xbox One console experience, as she suggests that this is what Sony, Microsoft, and, frankly, Hollywood are doing today.

"When was the last time you put a disc in and the game just worked without a big download? All the major players, Sony, Microsoft, even Hollywood, they're all aligned here. Digital kills the used market, and it stops your old library from competing with new games on the next console."

That 'always online' future is closer than it ever has been, and with Sony also shutting down PS3 and PS Vita stores in 2027. That means whenever the PS6 (or future PlayStation consoles) eventually becomes a retro console like the PS3, there will be no way to play games on the system unless it's via digital means — and that directly eliminates game ownership completely.

Sony's social media team are having a rough week: anything they post is getting piled on by angry gamers who are outraged by Sony's plans to stop the production of game discs.

Many PlayStation owners are vowing to boycott the PlayStation Store, cancel their PlayStation Plus membership and never buy PlayStation products again.

It's a PR nightmare for sure, with pretty much any online PlayStation content becoming a place for gamers to protest, derailing any attempt to talk about anything else.

It reminds me of the response to Sonos' introduction of a new and hugely flawed app, which Sonos now admits was badly done.

Sonos' PR nightmare lasted for around 18 months, there is now optimism and rebuilt trust around the new changes it's bringing to improve the app. Could Sony learn from Sonos' experience and its attempts to rebuild customer trust?

I think the answer is: yes it could, but no it won't.

What Sonos got right and Sony probably won't

Speaking to TechRadar earlier this year, Sonos CEO Tom Conrad set out his views on how to try and make angry customers happy again. "You just have to show up in people's life with some humility and do the hard work of earning their trust back through great execution, great product, great software, great experiences, and never forget what you put people through."

So far, Sony isn't doing that: rather than respond to gamers' concerns, it's battening down the hatches and staying silent about its move to digital-only. And that's a shame, because there are genuine reasons for gamers to worry about Sony's decision.

There are three key concerns about digital-only. The first, and I think the most important, is cost. The PlayStation Store is ludicrously expensive: for example Spider-Man 2, a three-year-old game, is £69.99 digital today in the UK, where I'm based. Competition between retailers means it's around £37 on disc.

The second is second-hand gaming. I buy many games second-hand, and many gamers like to sell their games after they've completed them or got annoyed by them, so that they can spend what they recoup on more new games (a win for the industry overall). So I can buy Returnal for about £20 on eBay. I can't buy the digital edition second-hand, so if I want the digital version it's… you guessed it, £69.99.

To be fair, you can get both games, and others, on PlayStation Plus Extra. But not everyone wants or can sustain yet another subscription, and we know that all subscription services go up in price — often dramatically so, as we saw with Xbox Game Pass last year.

And the third is ownership. Sony's disc announcement came just days after it deleted customers' purchased copies of over 500 movies, making it clear that purchasing doesn't mean owning forever. And those movies cost a lot less than £69.99.

Sony may have to eat humble pie for a while in order to mimic Sonos here, seeking out customer views to talk about those concerns, and maybe thinking about how to address them — so for example it could tell us that digital codes would still be sold through multiple retailers, like Nintendo does with its key cards, or that we'd be able to resell our digital-only games (even if it hasn't developed the mechanism for this yet).

However, the reality is that for a firm the size of Sony, even a significant customer backlash such as 246,586 signatures on a petition represents a microscopic proportion of its 125 million PlayStation Plus subscribers, let alone the many more PlayStation owners — and it can afford to ignore them.

That's something of a gamble. Just ask Microsoft, whose Game Pass price hike scared off far more customers than expected — according to reports, it lost 4 million out of 34 million Game Pass subscribers when it was expecting huge growth instead, forcing a partial reversal.

But Sony's gaming business is far bigger, and that means it can still upset a lot of customers without feeling much pain.

I suspect Sony is going to take a different lesson from the Sonos situation: even at the height of customer anger, Sonos still sold lots of speakers, soundbars and subs.

Then again, maybe Sony is more rattled than it's currently letting on. Two days after the digital-only announcement, with customers raging online, Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki sold more than half of his Sony stock and Sony's chief strategy officer unloaded a bunch of Sony shares too.

This week we unveiled the all-new, all-different — well, not all that different — TechRadar Awards, but plenty more happened in the worlds of tech.

Samsung announced that its next Unpacked event is taking place in a little over a week, and it’s teasing a big foldables announcement. However, based on its usual schedule, we’d be more surprised if it didn’t have any foldables to showcase this year.

Before you catch up with this week’s tech news, why not test yourself on last week’s seven biggest tech stories to see how good your memory is? Take the quiz below, or scroll on for the biggest tech news of the week… (and see if you can best last week’s ICYMI quiz when you’re done here).

7. The TechRadar Awards returned for 2026

The TechRadar Awards are back in 2026, and we’re making a radical change: we’re holding two sets of awards back-to-back this year! We’re introducing the TechRadar Product of the Year Awards and the TechRadar Readers’ Choice Awards. In the past, we combined reader votes on which products should win with our expert judges' opinions to determine an overall winner. But now we’re splitting those two elements into two different awards.

The Product of the Year Awards will be chosen solely by our editors and writers, based on their experience of using the products. The Readers’ Choice Awards will give all the power to you, our readers, though — you’ll be able to vote on a shortlist of the most popular and highly rated releases of the year, and the winner will be decided 100% by those votes.

We’re accepting nominations for products that you’d like to see shortlisted, and anyone can nominate something — so make sure that the products you love most are in with a chance!

Read the full story: Introducing TechRadar's Readers' Choice Awards and our Product of the Year Awards

6. ChatGPT rolled out its ‘smartest voice model ever’

This week, OpenAI has delivered an upgrade to ChatGPT’s voice mode for all users thanks to the rollout of two new models. The smaller GPT-Live-1 mini model will be the default for Free users, while paid users get the full GPT-Live-1 model.

GPT-Live-1 promises to sound more natural, be less interruptive when you pause while talking, and be smarter — as there previously seemed to be a knowledge gap between the written and spoken ChatGPT models.

To get around that last part, GPT-Live-1 actually delegates tasks to ChatGPT-5.5, then comes back with an answer.

There are also impressive new simultaneous translation tools that will translate what you hear live and what you say as you say it.

You can also give the chatbot a name to make conversing easier, though OpenAI’s go-to is ‘Chat’ — letting you live out your dreams of being a Twitch streamer.

Read the full story: GPT-Live-1 gives you more natural conversations without interruptions

5. Nokia debuted a retro phone with AI

This week, Nokia’s parent company, HMD, debuted a quartet of retro-style phones with one anachronistic addition — a big ol’ AI button.

They still offer a full suite of legacy features — if you miss the 3.5 mm headphone jack, a microSD for bigger storage capacity, and (on three of the models) an FM radio, you’ll find them here — it’s just that you’ll also have a little digital assistant too.

Details are thin, though it sounds like this won’t be quite on Gemini's level. Instead, the AI is mostly there to help with on-device tasks like setting alarms, opening the camera, and creating reminders. The biggest issue, however, is the AI assistant is only free for 180 days — after that it's $3.99 (about £3 / AU$5.75) a year if you're in the EU and $2.99 (about £2.25 / AU$4.30) a year everywhere else.

Yikes!

Read the full story: Nokia's new retro-styled feature phones have AI buttons for some reason

4. The Amazfit Active 3 Premium impressed us

The Amazfit Active 3 Premium is the sequel to last year's five-star Amazfit Active 2, and it's another knockout of a budget watch (despite the Premium name). A terrific fitness tracker costing just $169 / £169 / AU$239, it boasts features you normally get on watches twice the price, such as full-color maps and a sapphire glass screen.

Its metrics were accurate during testing, and it looks great to boot. It's the budget watch to get - even perhaps over popular choices such as the Apple Watch SE 3 or the Garmin Forerunner 70. It's a real win for Amazfit, which has quietly spent the last few years improving its Zepp App ecosystem and building well-priced fitness trackers for every category.

Read the full story: Amazfit’s latest premium offering is about more than just looks

3. We took over 1,000 shots with the Sony RX10 V

Sony surprised the camera community and us this week when it revived its best-in-class series of bridge cameras, with the launch of the new RX10 V. The Mark V superzoom arrived nine years after the now-discontinued Cyber-shot RX10 IV, with the same versatile 24-600mm F2.4-4 lens and 20 megapixel 1-inch stacked sensor, but with a welcome redesign and Sony’s latest processor and autofocus.

We had already tested the all-in-one camera ahead of its announcement, taking over 1,000 photos across a school sports day, bird photography trip, macro garden life and more, and were thoroughly won over, even if we were less impressed by the steeper asking price. That being said, the RX10 IV still took the crown of the best bridge camera available today, and with its predecessor being a rare secondhand find, we expect the latest model to be a popular camera indeed.

Read the full story: Here’s how Sony’s surprise new superzoom performed

2. Google Pixel 11 got a launch date

Samsung isn’t the only tech giant preparing to launch flagship phones soon — this week, Google announced that its Pixels will get a refresh next month.

The “next generation of Pixel” will be revealed on August 12, just three weeks after Samsung’s Unpacked event. Google didn’t mention any specific models, but we’re expecting to see a Pixel 11 (with fancy ‘Pixel Glow’ lights for notifications), plus new Pro models and a Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

Unfortunately, we’re also likely to see higher prices across the board, according to recent rumors. That wouldn’t be a huge surprise in these fun ‘RAMpocalypse’ days, but the expected arrival of the Pixel Watch 5 could at least help lighten the mood.

Read the full story: Google sets Pixel 11 launch for August 12

1. Samsung set a date for Galaxy Unpacked

After months of rumors, as well as an official tease or two, Samsung has finally made its next Galaxy Unpacked event officially official. Pencil in July 22, 2026, at 9 a.m. ET / 6 a.m. PT / 2 p.m. BST (11 p.m. AEDT) for Samsung's second Unpacked event of the year. Keeping with tradition, we're expecting the next-generation Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip, as well as an accessory or two.

It likely won't just be the successors to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7. Samsung's invitation for the event teases "A New Shape Unfolds," likely hinting that a shorter, wider—more passport-like—foldable is on the way. The video invite also features a ticket being printed in a shape that further hints at the new design, as it simply doesn't line up with the current Fold or Flip.

So why introduce a new folding phone design this many generations in? Well, it's likely that Samsung wants to get ahead of Apple's rumored entry into the category, which, according to leaks, will take on a similar form factor. For Samsung, it's also about expanding its foldable lineup, and if we're lucky, maybe we'll see more diverse price points as well.

We don't have long to wait now. TechRadar will be on the ground at Galaxy Unpacked in London, UK, and, as usual, Samsung will livestream the event while we'll be live-blogging it.

Read the full story: 'A New Shape Unfolds' could be its biggest clue yet about what to expect

• Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 were just ported to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5
• Aside from an upgraded picture quality, they seem otherwise identical to the original versions
• Some fans are convinced that they just don't feel right, however

Yesterday, Activision treated us to the surprise release of not one, but two Call of Duty ports. You can now buy the original Black Ops and its acclaimed follow-up, Black Ops 2, on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 for the very first time.

They upgrade the resolution of both games on these newer consoles (a substantial step up from the 608p native picture quality of the backwards compatible versions available on Xbox) but otherwise seem almost identical to their original incarnations.

Even some big features that many fans thought would be cut, like Black Ops 2's infamous emblem creator, are present and accounted for.

I picked up copies of the two games immediately with my own cash (there's currently an irresistible 50% discount on them if you have PS Plus) and spent the best part of yesterday evening playing on my PS5. Aside from the crisper picture quality, they're just as I remember.

I replayed the original versions of both games pretty recently too, via second-hand physical copies that I bought for my Xbox Series X to refresh my knowledge of both games ahead of the Black Ops 7 launch — this latest entry is a Black Ops 2 sequel, after all.

Some fans aren't as impressed, though, and argue that the games just don't feel right.

"Black Ops 1 PS5 has a serious controller input lag issue that needs to be adressed [sic] and fixed" argued one poster on r/callofduty. "It surely wasn’t this bad on PS3".

"Sounds like the original launch" another fan replied, with someone else chiming in: "The golden days" and a tongue-in-cheek sobbing emoji.

"BO1 always felt hard to aim in even in the old days compared to BO2. Pretty sure this is normal" added someone else.

Another post similarly reckons that "The responsiveness is terrible. I distinctly remember the original Black Ops 1 feeling way crisper than this". The top comment agrees, complaining that "I’m losing every gun fight because my gun doesn’t fire in time".

Although everything feels fine to me, there's definitely a chance that those playing specific resolutions, on specific TVs, or with features like VRR enabled might be having a much worse experience. I expect some patches will be released in the coming weeks if these claims hold water.

• Daniel Ahmad of Niko Partners says Sony ending physical disc production was inevitable
• He says it would have happened if not for the PS6, then the PS7
• Ahmad says Sony wants to create a "closed ecosystem with high margins"

Sony's decision to end the production of physical PlayStation discs in 2028 came as quite a shock to the community, but one analyst believes the move was inevitable given the rise in digital sales on consoles.

Sharing his thoughts in a long thread on X in a response to a fan likening the situation to Apple removing the headphone jack from its products, Daniel Ahmad of Niko Partners said, "It's more like Apple removing the CD Drive from its laptops starting in 2008."

He explained that while there were many complaints at the time, there's "not a single person is complaining about it today," and there were not many people complaining in the early 2010s either. Ahmad puts Sony's decision down to digital PlayStation software performing better now than it ever did before the PS4 launched.

"The first thing to note about Sony's decision is that it would inevitably happen at some point for consoles. If not PS6, then PS7," Ahmad continued. "Full game digital sales on PlayStation have gone from less than 10% prior to the release of the PS4 to around 80% today."

He added, "On Xbox it's already over 90%, and if anything I'm surprised they weren't the ones to do it first. Yes, these numbers include digital only games, reflecting the current market environment, but they don't include DLC, microtransactions or subscriptions / free games."

Ahmad shared a bit more data to support his claims, saying that about 50% of the PS5 user base is subscribed to PS Plus and has built up a large library and/or has access to numerous digital games.

"The truth is that the console ecosystem is nearly entirely digital at this point," he said, pointing to how Sony also earns revenue through digital add-on content, like microtransactions and other in-game purchases, more than it does "from the sale of physical and digital full game sales combined."

Games like Fortnite, Grand Theft A 5, Minecraft, Call of Duty, Apex Legends, Marvel Rivals, Battlefield 6, and Arc Raiders, Ahmad pointed out, had the highest number of players on PS5 in May, and half of them don't ship on a physical disc.

"Over 30% of PS5s sold to date do not have a disc drive (Meaning that 70% do, however)," the analyst added. "More importantly though, the current sell through rate of digital only PS5s is above 50%."

Ahmad also said Insomnia Games' sales figures, which have been presented as evidence that physical sales represent a good chunk of PS5 sales, are "out of date" and "people are looking at the sell in number rather than the sell through number."

He explained that one of the reasons retail is high for certain physical games is "because Sony counts bundles as retail sales, even if it's a digital code with the console."

A reason he believes Sony is going forward with an all-digital future is simple: "The economic argument." Because of the profit margins between physical and digital games, Sony can retain 100% of first-party games sold on the PlayStation Store, but it earns $21 (30%) from a $70 third-party title.

"When it [Sony] sells a third party game at retail, it earns around half that amount, even if the player spends the same $70," he said. "The difference isn't as stark for third party publishers, but they'd prefer to sell all games digitally if they could for the higher margins. That's why physical game revenue makes up just 5% of Sony's total game software sales revenue (incl. DLC / MTX), despite accounting a higher % share for units sold. When Sony said it would stop publishing games on PC, no one pointed out that it essentially earned the same from PC sales that it earns from physical disc sales, and the former was considered too little."

Ahmad said another reason is the market we're currently in, where console prices seem to be increasing regularly. Sony knows that the PS6 could enter a market where other hardware is over $1000, and players will think twice about upgrading on day one.

"While part of it is cutting costs, it's also a realization that consoles are no longer going to be $199 mass market devices and they will need to focus on hardcore gamers who are willing to spend more than ever," he said.

A third reason would be Sony wanting to create a "closed ecosystem with high margins."

"The retreat from PC is partly about this, the end of disc production is also about this, as is the exploration of different form factors. Right now you can resell, gift, or even refund physical games. With digital games, you don't have the same rights currently," Ahmad said. "As Sony looks to maximize spend per user, it is essentially ending the used market for PS6 software and ensuring all software sold is high margin and they capture a %. In other words, Sony controls the license in its entirety and access is dependent on them."

Ahmad concluded, calling Sony's lack of announcement around what will happen to PS4 and PS5 discs "a mistake," and had it "talked about a disc to digital program, or confirmed a disc add on for the PS6, the backlash wouldn't have been as strong."

The analyst also said it's "unlikely" that Sony will reverse the decision, but "wouldn't be surprised if they do end up clarifying certain aspects." However, Ahmad thinks it could support physical games for a few more years, perhaps through limited-run hardware or a more expensive PS6 compared to the digital version.

"I'm also of the belief that even if the PS6 costs $1k, used physical games helps increase overall affordability," he said.

Ahmad ended by saying the conversation needs to shift to "consumer rights" and what digital game ownership really means.

"Regardless of whether we're talking about bringing physical back, or embracing digital, the conversation needs to shift to consumer rights and what a license should enable. Stop Killing Games was one part of it, but gifting, family sharing, refunds, and other aspects are just as important," he said.

Sony RX10 V: two-minute review

Just when you thought bridge cameras had been sunsetted, Sony returns after a nine-year gap with the new RX10 V — and it’s a genuine upgrade of the Cyber-shot RX10 IV, which was already the best camera of its kind.

We get the same winning combination of a 1-inch stacked 20MP sensor and 24-600mm F2.4-4 lens, but the mark V model has been enhanced with Sony's latest Bionz XR processor and AI chip, enabling improved burst shooting speed, 4K video features, and, most importantly, better autofocus performance.

Sony has also implemented multiple design tweaks to the control layout and ergonomics, and as a result the RX10 V looks much more like an Alpha camera than the RX10 IV, which feels more Cyber-shot compact, did. For a more detailed breakdown of the differences, check out my RX10 V vs Cyber-shot RX10 IV article.

There are additional exposure dials, an AF joystick has been added (thank you, Sony!), as has a USB-C terminal, and the higher-resolution viewfinder is larger, more pronounced, and easier to see.

Throw in a bigger and comfier grip, which hosts the larger NP-FZ100 battery for a 50% boost in shot life, and the RX10 V is all round a slicker camera than the discontinued RX10 IV.

It's not all good news, mind you, depending on which way you look at it — the weather-resistant body misses out on a built-in flash and top LCD, both of which were present in the older model.

And some of the old drawbacks remain, such as the relatively sluggish zoom of the lens, which is 'just' a 25x optical zoom. I like that range, but other lesser-quality bridge cameras zoom further, such as the Nikon Coolpix P1100.

A significant sticking point is price — the RX10 V had to cost more than its nine-year-old predecessor, which was already pricier than any other bridge camera available. It's a big price to pay for this type of camera, even if you are getting a lot of camera for your money.

All that said, I've thoroughly enjoyed my lengthy review period with the Sony RX10 V, during which I've shot everything from travel to bird and macro photography, with the camera handling those and other subjects with aplomb.

It's a neatly packaged camera, especially when you consider you're getting a 600m f/4 lens when fully zoomed in. The RX10 V is a dream all-in-one camera, especially for enthusiast wildlife photographers with deep pockets.

Sony RX10 V: price and release date

• Announced on July 9 2026
• It costs $2,300 / £2,200 / AU$3,499

Sony's premium RX10 bridge camera series was always pricey compared to lesser-quality alternatives, and the latest version, the RX10 V, is even pricier. I'm not surprised: the RX10 IV launched for $1,800 / £1,500 / AU$2,000 almost nine years ago, and we should expect an inflation-based price bump at least. Still, $2,300 / £2,200 / AU$3,499 for a camera of this kind is a fair whack of anyone's money, let alone the enthusiast wildlife photographers that this camera is practically perfect for.

So what else could you get for similar money? If you already own a Sony mirrorless camera, the 400-800mm super-telephoto zoom lens is worth a look, especially if wildlife and bird photography are key reasons why you're considering the RX10 V. Or, if its zoom range alone that you want, and you're less concerned about outright image quality, the Nikon CoolPix with its monster 125x zoom is another option, and it costs almost half the price.

All things considered, though, I think the RX10 V is reasonable value for money, considering what you get.

• Price score: 4/5

Sony RX10 V specs

Sony RX10 V: Design

• Same 24-600mm F2.4-4 optically stabilized zoom lens as the RX10 IV
• Larger and more pronounced EVF with higher resolution and refresh rate
• Improved ergonomics and joystick added, but flash and top LCD removed

People buy a bridge camera primarily to get a superzoom lens, and the RX10 V has the exact same 24-600mm F2.4-4 lens as the RX10 IV — that’s a 25x optical zoom, with macro focusing up to a 0.49x magnification. Put simply, you’re covered for everything from landscapes and bird photography to close-ups of insects.

While the RX10 V is the same form factor as the RX10 IV, it has had a fairly major brush-up, and it feels a much better camera for it.

For one, the grip is comfier. It's a new shape with better ergonomics, and that's able to fit a physically larger battery than the previous model could, with a 50% boost in shot life.

If you're familiar with the RX10 IV, the top plate of this camera will take some getting used to; there are additional exposure control dials (one of which can be locked off) making quick changes to settings easier, while the shooting mode dial has been shifted to the right-hand side where a top LCD used to be. Personally I preferred the old setup.

Another major change is that the built-in flash has been removed, though a hotshoe remains for use with accessories such as an external flash.

Also, the viewfinder is more pronounced, which makes it easier to look into, helped by the fact that it's a larger 0.5-inch unit with more-detailed 3.68m-dot display, whereas the RX10 IV has a 2.36m-dot 0.39-inch unit. Put simply, the viewfinder is a major upgrade.

On the camera's back side, an AF joystick has been added (Sony calls it a 'Multi selector'), which is a control I love to have for the likes of manual AF-point selection. For wildlife photography, I used it a lot, and can't imagine how I would have coped so easily in such a scenario with the older camera.

Spin to the side, and the camera's ports are now neatly tucked away under rigid protective doors, with headphone and mic ports, plus a USB-C terminal has been added. The fact that the RX10 IV doesn't have a USB-C terminal is likely a reason it was discontinued, as per the EU's common charger regulations.

The tilt touchscreen is again a 3-inch type. It gets a small boost in resolution, and while that in itself isn't much of upgrade, its improved touch functions, and the fact that you can switch to a vertical format, are.

It’s possible to customize some of the buttons, including a speed-boost function during burst shooting — you can temporarily increase a medium speed, say of 10fps, to the maximum 30fps when the action begins. It’s a neat feature inherited from Sony's pro cameras, which minimizes how many photos you shoot, but the button placement is awkward for this feature — I would have liked a custom button on the front of the camera instead. A tally lamp has been added for video recording.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Sony RX10 V: Performance

• Sony's latest Bionz XR processor with AI chipset
• Burst shooting upped to 30fps, with Sony's most up to date autofocus system that includes a wide range of subject detection modes
• Now uses Sony's NP-FZ100 battery, delivering a 50% boost in shot life

Power and speed are where the major improvements are at. The RX10 V uses the same Bionz XR processor as the Sony A7 V mirrorless camera, with a combined AI chipset. The result is improved burst-shooting speeds and autofocus performance, and what Sony says is better color accuracy.

Burst-shooting speeds are boosted from the RX10 IV's 24fps to 30fps, when using the electronic shutter — which, in a camera like this with a stacked sensor, I have no problem doing. I'd hardly call this improvement in speed a reason to upgrade, though, especially since the mechanical shutter's maximum 10fps speed is enough for most scenarios.

When I was photographing action, such as for my child's sports day, or at my local nature reserve doing bird photography, I generally kept the camera to its 10fps setting, with one of the custom buttons set to a 30fps speed boost for when the action got really interesting.

This has allowed me to minimize the number of photos I've taken, while the way the camera groups burst sequences in playback makes files easier to navigate.

Something that makes the RX10 V feel like a snappier camera than the RX10 IV is that there is no viewfinder blackout, even for the 30fps setting, which is supported by continuous autofocus with Sony’s latest subject-detection autofocus.

Compared to the RX10 IV, the RX10 V is able to detect a wider range of specific subjects with real-time recognition, including dedicated modes for birds, cats, and more.

I generally made sure I selected the specific subject when I knew that was my focus, such as with bird photography, and have been seriously impressed by how sticky autofocus is. Even when birds were small in the frame, the RX10 V was regularly able to pick them up with the camera's autofocus area set to wide.

I had more issues when photographing my child's sports day, given that there were so many faces in a lot of the photos. For such scenarios, a quick jig of the autofocus area to a small area can help to avoid the camera focusing on people in the background instead of the subject.

I've mentioned it already, but like most of its recent mirrorless cameras the RX10 V also uses Sony’s popular NP-FZ100 battery, which is a longer-lasting unit than the NP-FZ50 in the RX10 IV.

Sony quotes shot life as up to 630 shots compared to 400 for the RX10 IV, which is a huge performance boost. Add on-the-go UBS-C charging, and the RX10 V is a better camera for heavy photography days.

For me, all the above performance improvements are key for a camera that people typically buy as an entry point for wildlife photography.

• Performance score: 5/5